Taylor's Alternate
by mp3.1415player
Summary: An omake for Taylor Varga that I may have got a little carried away with :) Knowledge of both canon Worm and canon Taylor Varga is probably required for it to make sense...
1. Introduction

The door extruded into reality, appearing to merge with the brick wall it had arrived next to. Moments later, it opened and a reptilian face peered out curiously.

{Where did _this_ one end up?} a deep voice asked in a very odd language full of hissing sounds.

{I'm not sure,} the face said, as the body attached to it stepped out onto the cracked cement. {Looks familiar though.}

The owner of the second voice followed the first arrival out of the door, also looking around with interest. {You know, just randomizing the coordinates and turning it on is a weird way of exploring.}

{It's as good as any other method.} The first visitor shrugged, grinning. {Sure, we could do some sequential search or something but this is more spontaneous. And sooner or later we'll hit all the same places, right? It's not like we're actually _looking_ for anything in particular, we're just having fun.}

{Point,} her companion admitted with a smile. She looked around again, then sniffed. {Not the docks, we're further inland than that. Definitely Brockton Bay, though, it doesn't look all that different from the last half dozen variants. Smells pretty similar too.}

Saurial, for this was her name, nodded. {Yep, it's got that distinctive reek of desperation, old fish, and crime,} she joked. The other reptile, a larger and pitch black one that went by the name Metis as far as most people were concerned, snickered.

{Pretty much.} Pulling out a device from a compartment that opened up in the armor she was wearing she fiddled with it. {Aha! Got a cell signal, now let's see if Dragon's latest code does… OK, that was quick. It's cracked the local encryption and we've got internet, cell signal, and everything. Let's see when it is...}

{We're somewhere near Winslow,} ' _Saurial_ ' said as her friend was working. {I'm sure of that now, I can hear a lot of kids swearing at each other. It smells like that too, I'd recognize that anywhere."}She was facing into the light breeze, sniffing the air. {Huh. That smells exactly like...}

Lisa, the human mind behind the persona of Metis, looked up as her friend suddenly stopped talking. {Like?}

 _{Sophia_ ,} the tall humanoid lizard hissed, her voice taking on a slightly worrying tone. She looked at the other reptile. {What's the local date?}

{Ah...} Lisa inspected her special phone. {January fourth, two thousand eleven, at ten thirty AM. Hey, that sounds awfully fam...} She looked up to see the other girl was gone.

{Oh, hell,} she groaned when she worked it out, and started running, dismissing her armor and engaging the stealth mode of her scales. The few people on the street she dashed across seconds later blinked as a weird visual distortion crossed their path and shot up the side of the building on the other side, before disappearing over the roof. 

* * *

Sophia spun the dial of the combination lock with an evil grin and stepped back looking triumphant. "Have fun, Hebert," she said with a snicker. Beside her, Emma was smirking, an unholy light of pleasure in her eyes to the point that even Sophia wondered sometimes. Slightly behind them, on the other side, Madison was watching, her own smile just a hint uncertain.

The stench from the waste in the locker was omnipresent, and the banging sound and cries from inside were trailing off rapidly. "Stupid little bitch," Emma muttered. "Why can't you just..."

They were interrupted by a yelp from down the corridor, followed by a number of shouts and a scream. All three of them turned around, then stopped dead and stared at the person stomping towards them. "Holy shit, what's _that?"_ Emma yipped as the six foot five reptilian female headed their way radiating at aura of ' _fuck with me and die_ ', mayhem in her glowing yellow slit-pupiled eyes.

"Cape, but I don't recognize her," Sophia replied in a very quiet and worried voice. Moments later she nearly fainted as a strange sensation went through her, odd visual effects accompanying it, but Emma grabbed her before she could hit the ground. Shaking herself back to consciousness and wondering what had happened, she was distracted by the furious reptile heading their way.

The lizard woman, which is certainly what she looked like, walked right past them with a look of complete contempt before Sophia could think what to do, literally pushed her hand through the door next to the lock like it was made of damp tissue paper and ripped the entire thing off its hinges as easily as someone tearing a bag of chips open. Flinging the door to the side she caught the body that slumped backwards in a flood of disgusting mess and picked her up. "I've got you, Taylor, you're safe," the creature said softly into the hair of the girl as she lifted her clear of the floor. Turning around, she fixed them all with a vicious look that made Madison whimper, Emma go sheet-white, and Sophia freeze in the process of fumbling for her PRT phone, while trying to work out how to tell them what was going on without outing herself. With no other idea coming to her she hit the emergency call button and held it down in her pocket.

"I'll deal with you little shits later. Stay here, don't move, don't even _think_ of running. If I have to come find you, you'll _wish_ I hadn't, trust me." She leaned closer to Sophia and lowered her voice to a whisper. " _Shadow Stalker_. Run and I'll fuck you up like you wouldn't believe, trust me on that, you vicious little psychopath."

While Sophia was still gaping in horror, the creature turned away. One step later, it turned back and fixed them with a thoughtful look.

"Cellphones. On the floor."

"What?" Emma squeaked, sounding terrified and befuddled.

"Put your cellphones on the floor in front of you, right now." Her voice was a low hiss. " _Do not_ make me tell you again."

Each of the girls hastened to obey. There was something deadly in that voice, and even Sophia didn't want to find out what happened if they didn't obey. She had no idea what powers this cape had other than being a high level Brute at a minimum and knew that left her in a bad position. Hopefully once the thing was gone, she could escape and find help, but making a stand right here and now could end badly anyway and would inevitably out her in the process. So, very reluctantly, she put her phone on the floor in front of her. Her civilian one, of course, the PRT issued one hidden in another pocket, which hopefully this creature didn't know about.

"Your other phone too, Sophia."

Shit.

With ill grace, but feeling the weight of that inhuman glare, she did as requested. Each of the phones was suddenly enclosed in a block of some gray metal that appeared out of nowhere, making all three of them stare.

With a nod of satisfaction, the lizard-woman turned away from them and headed for the locker room like she was completely familiar with the school even though Sophia had never even heard of her before, never mind seen her. "You, call 911 right the fuck _now_ and get the cops here," the lizard said as she passed the crowd of onlookers that had turned up and were staring in shock, looking meaningfully at one of the football players. "DO IT!" she commanded when he simply gaped back, making him jump violently, damn near salute, then grab for his phone. "You, the tall one, you call Danny Hebert at the Dock Workers Association, tell him to get here immediately. Move it, don't make me say it again."

The second boy nodded frantically, already dialing.

"Get out of my way," the creature hissed in deadly tones to two teachers, Gladly and another one, that had come around the corner at a dead run, then skidded to a halt. She stalked past them without looking back as they moved to the side, their eyes wide, a trail of old blood and even less pleasant things in her wake.

When she was out of sight, the three girls looked at each other, then as one turned to leg it. None of them got more than four feet, all ending up on the floor as they tripped. Each looked down to see that a dull gray metal manacle was around each left leg, chains linking all of them together and to a large block of the same material which was so heavy it didn't shift at all when their weight hit it.

Madison made a little whimpering noise deep in her throat. Emma started swearing under her breath and yanking at the chain, to no avail whatsoever.

"Fuck _this!_ " Sophia said in terrified fury. No one did this sort of shit to her, cape or no cape. Quickly checking and finding everyone else seemed to be staring after the lizard, she made her leg go to shadow and yanked to remove the manacle.

She was horrified when she discovered that the damn thing stayed in place…

After a few frozen moments, she looked up to see Emma looking at her through a completely white and shit-scared expression and Madison, who had clearly seen what she'd done, gaping in shock. And when she looked back to the crowd her heart jumped as she noticed Greg Veder looking at her with his eyebrows raised so far they disappeared into his idiotic haircut, his phone in his hand pointing at her.

With a sinking heart, she busied her mind with trying to think how the hell she was going to talk herself out of what happened next. There didn't seem to be any other options, as galling as that was to admit even in the privacy of her own head. 

* * *

****  
Putting the phone down, Danny Hebert dashed out of his office, grabbing his coat en route. "I'm going to the school," he half-shouted at his secretary as he passed her nearly running. "Taylor's been hurt."

"Oh, dear!" the woman said in shock, rising from her seat. "I'll make sure everyone knows."

"Thanks, Janet," the cry came back as the door swung shut. Two minutes later his truck was leaving the DWU grounds at the highest speed it could manage while still being safe on the awful roads, the occupant fretting about what he'd find. 

* * *

****  
"We've got a call saying an unknown Parahuman is involved in a disturbance at Winslow," Miss Militia reported as she walked into the room.

"Winslow?" Armsmaster queried, pausing in his preparation for leaving the Rig. "We just got an ' _Urgent help needed immediately_ ' automated ping from Shadow Stalker at Winslow."

"Shit."

They looked at each other for a moment, then she headed for her locker and started grabbing equipment. Battery and Assault were already standing by, and four PRT troopers were loading the truck that was parked just outside the door of the room on the lower level of the structure. Within three minutes it was rolling across the force field bridge to shore, Armsmaster's bike leading, and joined up with two more PRT vehicles when it reached the city itself. All of them tore towards the school at far above the speed limit, sirens blaring.

"Where's that BBPD cruiser going in such a hurry?" Assault said a couple of minutes later, pointing out the windscreen. He was in the cab of the vehicle, one of the troopers next to him doing the driving, with the others in seats down either side in the back. Hannah leaned forward to see.

"The same way we are by the looks of it," she replied. "So is that one." They had just been overtaken by another cruiser doing about 90.

"Who called them?" Battery looked around. Everyone shook their heads. Hannah was already on the radio trying to find out.

All she'd managed to determine was that someone at the school had called 911 and specifically asked for police half a minute or so before Shadow Stalker's alarm had been registered, but there wasn't much detail yet. The dispatcher was being unusually difficult, and the BBPD always tended to be difficult at best when the PRT was involved unless there was an order from high up. She sighed heavily and hung on as the truck screeched around a corner. Sooner or later someone was going to have to do something about the animosity that had developed between civilian and federal law enforcement around here.

Hearing another siren approaching rapidly from behind, she looked out the darkened rear windows to see an ambulance zooming towards them, apparently going to the same destination. Behind _it_ was a BBFD hazmat vehicle, which made her wonder what the hell was going on.

Battery looked in the same direction, appearing puzzled. "Now what?" she muttered. Hannah could only shrug.

Before she could try to find out more, they turned the last corner and found themselves two hundred yards from the gates to the school, which had three police cars already parked outside it blocking the road. The ambulance drove past and pulled up next to one of them, the hazmat truck doing the same some distance away. Both disgorged a number of people who headed in through the gates.

Armsmaster stopped his bike right at the entrance and then sat there, apparently staring at the school, which from their viewpoint was still invisible behind the wall surrounding the front of the building. Moments later they parked, and Assault who could now see directly through the entrance swore under his breath.

"Jesus Christ," the driver exclaimed.

"What is it?" Hannah demanded.

"The biggest nastiest looking lizard thing I've ever seen in my life," the man replied, sounding very worried. "And it's looking right at us."

"Are its eyes actually _glowing?_ " Assault put in with a distinct waver to his voice. Again, Hannah leaned forward, getting out of her seat, to see what they were looking at. Opposite her Battery did the same.

She swallowed as she found herself looking at possibly the most dangerous looking creature she'd ever seen. It was at least eight feet tall, standing on four legs, with an upright torso bearing a pair of arms and hands that appeared strong enough to snap telephone poles in half like matchsticks. This was topped by a reptilian head with the aforementioned eyes, which were indeed glowing sufficiently brightly to be visible in daylight, and a mouthful of teeth several inches long that she could easily make out because they were bared in what looked like an amused smile.

The entire creature was covered in some sort of armor, even the long tail she could see slowly waving back and forth behind it.

"Who or what is _that?_ " Battery said in a stunned voice.

"I have no idea at all," she replied slowly. Everyone in the vehicle exchanged glances, then grabbed for weapons and climbed out the back. Walking over to Colin, who was still astride his bike, carefully evaluating the reptile that was watching them with no sign of worry, she said, "Ideas?" She saw that there were faces looking out every window in the building that faced them, most appearing curious or worried or both.

"The creature is estimated to weigh some two thousand pounds and is wearing armor I cannot get any readings on for unknown reasons," he replied immediately. "Strength unknown but based on the sheer size is likely to be considerable. Probable minimum low Brute rating. No weapons visible, but the talons and teeth are clearly dangerous. The front legs appear to be constructed to allow use as arms as well, so it may be capable of bipedal locomotion, which would give a height of probably ten feet or more."

"Ever heard of this one before? Is it even a Parahuman at all?"

"No, and I have no idea," he said, looking at her for a moment. "It is possibly a construct, or a projection, but the latter is less likely as it appears to be biological in nature. That said my instruments are unable to tell me anything about its possible makeup other than it's breathing."

"Worrying," she commented, looking at the creature again, which was watching the people run around in front of it without any apparent urge to either flee or attack. She was absolutely certain, looking at it, that it was highly intelligent. There was no particular _reason_ she had that feeling, but her gut was telling her not to underestimate the thing. "So what do we do? Shadow Stalker is inside that school, along with hundreds of staff and students. Are they hostages?"

"Of course they aren't," the creature immediately said in a very deep female voice, easily audible even a hundred feet away. "I was just waiting for you guys to stop talking to each other. It's rude to interrupt."

Everyone froze and stared. The reptile smiled more widely, which had the effect that almost every single person took a step back in a manner that was almost choreographed. This seemed to amuse her a lot if the glint in those disturbing eyes was anything to go by. "OK, Hazmat guys, you need to go to locker 812 on the first floor, go left up the stairs inside the door. Just follow the smell and the blood, you can't miss it." She pointed at the small team from the fire department, who were fully suited in bio-protective equipment. "It's a biological hazard, body fluids and medical waste. You'll want to collect evidence and take a lot of photos."

They looked at each other as everyone else, including Hannah and Colin, looked at _them_. "Go on, get on with it, we're burning daylight here!" the creature snapped in a commanding voice that had everyone with a military background twitching. All three hazmat people jumped, then hurried to follow her instructions. She moved to the side to let them past. Hannah raised a hand to stop them and point out this was a PRT jurisdiction scene but the reptile glared at her and for some reason she froze again. ' _Master effect?_ ' her mind pondered, but in her heart she knew it was because the scaly female was just that scary.

"You, Sergeant." The reptile pointed at one of the cops, who stared back, his hand on his gun and his eyes wide. "You need to go to the Principal's office and arrest Helen Blackwell, the principal. Charges will include misappropriation of federal funds, bribery, destruction of school records for illegal purposes, defamation, and quite a few other things. There are a number of other teachers in this place who will also need to be talked to."

"What… I mean… who are..." He didn't seem to have any way to get something useful out.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Armsmaster demanded, getting off his bike. He had one hand on his halberd, ready to whip it out, which prompted Hannah to switch the manifested pistol she'd had in her hand without really thinking about it since she'd seen the reptilian figure for a riot gun. Behind and around her she heard the troopers ready their foam projectors.

The creature sighed. "Really? You want to do this now? OK, sure, whatever." She shook her head. "My name is Raptaur. I'm a visitor. And what I want is justice."

"Which means?" he asked in a hard voice.

"Which means, _Armsmaster_ ," Raptaur said in a voice that was at least as hard, and a lot more impressive due to the bass note underlying it, "that there is a girl in there who was just assaulted in a truly disgusting manner with an attack that could easily be considered bio-terrorism and possibly attempted murder by three of her fellow students. With the tacit backing of the school administration who have been well aware of the bullying campaign carried out here for nearly two years." She started walking closer to them, causing all the foam guns to rise and aim at her, which had no visible effect on her demeanor. Hannah was listening with shock, and growing concern.

"My sister is currently treating her and cleaning her up in the girl's locker room. Her father is on his way here. When he gets here, and she's recovered enough to talk, we are _going_ to talk. Then, when he's taken her home, we're going to go and see your Director and talk to _her_ as well." The reptile was now only thirty feet away. At this point she stopped. "I could tell you more, but this is too public, I think."

Colin glanced at Hannah, his mouth set in a thin line, then looked back at Raptaur. Hannah could sense his worry and confusion. She shared it. On the one hand, they had a totally unknown and very worrying cape at a public school, who said that a relative was actually inside that school, a place from which an alarm had been raised by a Ward. A Ward, in fact, with whom they'd had no further contact. On the other hand, this odd Parahuman or whatever she was didn't seem hostile, merely determined. Did they attack in an attempt to take her down then work out what was going on later, or try to de-escalate things before it went too far?

"I'm afraid I'm going to need more," Colin said grimly, unshipping his halberd and doing something which made it snap out to full length. Hannah sighed minutely, hearing every weapon in the combined group come on target with a fusillade of cocking sounds and motion.

Looked like the first option was now a possibility.

"You sure about that?" Raptaur asked, not looking away from him or paying any attention at all to the guns pointed at her.

"I am."

"If you want, then," the reptile growled. "The three girls who have perpetrated this current attack, and who have been waging psychological torture on their victim for over eighteen months, are Madison Clements, Emma Barnes… And Sophia Hess."

Hannah felt her heart skip a beat.

Colin was silent for several seconds.

"You have proof of this?"

"I have all three girls restrained next to the locker they filled with biological waste, before pushing their victim in. Sophia Hess's fingerprints will be on the lock. There were witnesses too, who were threatened by Hess to keep quiet."

"You have them… restrained?" Colin's voice was skeptical, which Hannah knew the reason for.

Raptaur smiled again, very slowly. "Oh, yes, that I do. Believe me, no one gets out of our restraints, no matter how good they are at… escapology."

He looked at Hannah for a moment, then around at the troopers and cops. The paramedics from the ambulance were standing at the back of the crowd half-hidden by their vehicle, but straining to hear and see.

Hannah could also see quite a few cell-phones being held up to the windows of the school and had a sinking feeling this entire bizarre encounter was already on the internet.

"The school administration is aware of the problem and has been deliberately sweeping it under the carpet for some time," Raptaur went on, cocking her head a little to the side as she watched his reaction. "For reasons of… let's go with it would potentially interfere with some of their funding."

Which meant that Sophia's handler was involved, Hannah realized with worry, assuming all of this was true. _That_ was going to raise absolute chaos when it came out.

"And what is your interest in this, presuming any of it is correct?" Colin finally asked.

Raptaur shrugged, still smiling. "Let's just say we've seen it before, and were in the area. That'll do for now. I can tell you more later but it really isn't a matter for public consumption." She looked around at all the weapons. "Don't worry, I'm not hostile. You can put the guns down." Turning around, she headed back to the door. "They won't work anyway," she added casually over her shoulder, which was all sorts of scary if it was true.

Hannah felt, for some reason, it wasn't impossible that it _was_ …

"Come on, Sergeant, you have a job to do," the reptile called, waving to the cops and pointing at the door. She took up a station beside it again. The man in question looked at Colin and Hannah, then his own men, before shaking his head and going inside. Hannah motioned with her hand to Assault who was staring at the entire weird encounter with an expression of bemusement, then indicated the police who were cautiously filing through the front door of the school.

"Go with them, please," she said quietly.

He followed without a word, tapping two of the PRT people on the shoulder as he passed them. They lowered their foam projectors and followed, not without suspicious glances at the huge reptilian form guarding the doorway.

The sound of tires screeching made everyone turn and look, to see a somewhat beaten-up pickup truck round the corner and slam to a halt next to the ambulance. The occupant, a tall skinny guy with glasses and balding head, jumped out and raced towards the gate, one of the cops moving to intercept him.

"Let him through, he's her father," Raptaur said in tones of command. The cop stopped, the man sidestepping him then skidding to a halt when he spotted the reptile.

"Holy shit," he yelped.

"Come with me, Danny, I've been waiting for you," Raptaur said in a calming voice, quite different from the one she'd been using up to now. She motioned towards herself. "My name is Raptaur, I'm a friend. I'll take you to Taylor."

He gaped for a moment, then asked, "Is she OK? What happened? Where is she?"

"She'll be fine but she needs her father," Raptaur replied. "My sister is with her. She had a very upsetting experience but we got her out before it could be too bad."

She waited, then waved again. "Don't worry, it'll be fine."

After a moment, Hannah could see him visibly pull himself together and walk determinedly over. She rather admired his courage, considering he was presumably just a normal man with no powers or training. Not many people would have done that, family or not, considering who was looking at him.

"This will feel a little weird but it's perfectly safe," she added when he'd reached her. "Metis, take over, will you? Stop anyone doing anything stupid if you can."

"No problem," another deep voice said out of nowhere. The entire contingent stared as twenty feet to the side another huge reptile resolved out of apparent thin air, fading into view like a special effect. This one was so black she was hard to look at, and had glowing green eyes, which were showing a distinct sense of amusement in them.

"Fuck me," someone in the remaining group of cops and troopers said quietly. The new one, apparently called Metis, snickered.

When Hannah looked back to Raptaur and the Hebert man, both were gone.

Colin also looked, then growled under his breath and collapsed his halberd. "I'm going to see what the hell this is all about. You make sure _no one_ leaves," he told her, then stomped towards the door. Metis merely watched him, waving a little as he passed and smirking.

Hannah would swear to her dying day she heard his teeth grinding from the gate. 

* * *

"Director, you need to see this," Emily's second in command said as he opened her door without even knocking. She looked up from her screen to glare at him.

"What is it, I'm half way through next month's budget and..." she began, before he cut her off by putting a large tablet on the table, turned so she could see the display. It was playing a video from a popular web forum, she could see from the logo at the top.

After a few seconds, she raised her eyes to meet his. "Is this real?"

"Yes, I've checked. Armsmaster took a team to the school after Shadow Stalker's alarm was triggered. Miss Militia is with him, and we dispatched two other units from here at the same time because dispatch got an alert that an unknown Parahuman was on site. Apparently someone in the school called for the police, an ambulance, _and_ a hazmat team, from what we can tell on the orders of another Parahuman inside for at least two of those."

"And this is live?" She checked the timestamp on the video stream, which was only about five seconds delayed from the current time.

"Yes."

Scrolling back through the stream she watched the results for a moment, then went back to the live view. It was apparently being taken from a second floor window based on the angle and was of the front of the school, in which a number of BBPD and PRT personnel could be seen standing around a little awkwardly, all of them holding weapons like they didn't quite know what to do with them. Miss Militia and Battery were in the upper center of the shot, and about twenty feet from them, closer to the building, a very large and extraordinarily black bipedal reptile was looking back. It was _so_ black the camera was having trouble with it, the result looking like a cutout in the world, relieved by only a pair of glowing green eyes with slitted pupils which were visible momentarily when it glanced up at whoever was recording it.

"Who or what is that?" she snarled, pointing.

Renick shrugged. "I have no idea. We don't have any records of a reptilian cape that match either of the two so far reported. And apparently there's another one inside, but so far no video of her has surfaced."

He reclaimed the tablet and closed the video, quickly opening a chat window. Scrolling through it for a few seconds, he stopped, then handed it back. She took it and read the screen, before she paused on one name. Feeling her blood pressure skyrocket, Emily very carefully put the tablet down on her desk and clenched her fists, breathing heavily.

When she was sure she could speak without emitting only obscenities, she requested in polite tones that were still heavy with menace, "Would you be so good as to get Shadow Stalker's handler in here as soon as possible, please?"

Renick nodded without saying a thing, picked up his tablet, and left as quickly as possible. Turning her head to look out the window at the skyline of Brockton Bay, Director Piggot glared in the direction of Winslow and a young woman who was, with any luck, having a very bad day.

If she _wasn't_ , she was _going_ to when Emily got her hands on the little bitch.

And where the _fuck_ had the _lizards_ come from? 

* * *

Taylor twitched, her mind alight with weird sensations. Millions of little sparks of information seemed to be pouring in from all around her and keeping track of it was overwhelming her. She also, for some reason, felt like she was soaked in warm water.

Moaning to herself, almost lost in the massive barrage of sights and sounds and scents and all manner of other things she couldn't even put a name to, she wasn't sure if she'd heard a voice or not.

"Damn, I didn't make it in time. Sorry, Taylor," the voice, one she'd never heard before, seemed to say. "I tried. Here, this should help."

There was yet another weird sensation somewhere on her neck, she thought dizzily, then everything else… faded, for want of a better description. The vast number of sources of confusing information died away to the point they were almost unnoticeable. They were still _there_ , she could feel them, but they were somewhere in the background now.

Sagging in relief, she exhaled slowly. Then frowned. She really did feel like she was immersed in warm water. Why?

When she finally opened her eyes, she found she was curled in a ball on the floor of one of the shower cubicles in the locker room, and the sensation of warm water was coming, logically enough, from the warm water that was running over her. Blinking in confusion she tried to work out what was going on. She'd gone to her locker to get something for the next class, smelled a horrible stench as she approached, then noticed with dismay that it seemed to be coming from her locker. The bitches had fucked things up yet again, which she should have expected from the devious expressions all three of them had worn since she'd first spotted them that morning. The first day back after Christmas and she could already tell it was going to be bad.

She'd opened the locker, and…

Taylor remembered.

She turned her head to the side and vomited, nothing coming out but sour liquid. The insects, the blood, someone pushing her in and kicking the door shut on her as she screamed and hammered on the inside…

Once again she retched. A hand steadied her.

"It'll pass. Here, drink this, it will help with the nausea." Another hand held out a glass with something liquid in it. Blindly she slightly uncurled enough to take and drank, spitting a couple of times to get rid of the taste, although at least half of it was memory. Then she swigged the rest of the fluid which wasn't entirely water, but tasted of lemons.

"Thanks," she gasped weakly, feeling the glass be removed from her hand. Or maybe disappear, she wasn't sure and her head was spinning.

"You're welcome," the voice said. It sounded like a woman, pretty much. She didn't recognize it, or the slight accent it had, but it sounded friendly and was attached to someone who was helping her so that was nice.

Probably not a teacher then, she thought bitterly.

"What happened?" the girl managed to say weakly, still disorientated. She closed her eyes again since the light was making her dizzy.

"Sophia and her little friends shoved you into your locker after filling it with biotoxins. Do you remember that part?"

"Unfortunately yes," she moaned.

"I got there about thirty seconds too late to stop them and got you out," the voice went on, sounding annoyed but more with itself than anyone else. "I'm really sorry about that. When I realized, I tried to find you, but the layout of this version of Winslow is a little different and it took longer than I thought it would..." The voice trailed off as she frowned a little, trying to work out what about that comment was odd. "Anyway, I found you and got you out."

"What about Emma and Sophia and Madison?" Taylor asked after a little while of thinking about what she'd heard. She was now leaning back against the tiles, comfortingly warm water running down over her head and through her hair. She didn't want to open her eyes until her stomach fully settled, especially as she didn't want to see the crap that she imagined she was surrounded by. It had been in her hair, and her clothes, and in her shoes.

Shoes.

She wiggled her toes.

Then she felt her stomach.

"Um… Am I naked?"

"Sorry, yes, your clothes were past the point of being useful except as evidence," the voice chuckled. "Don't worry, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

"Oh."

After a moment, the voice of her savior continued, "Don't worry about the trio, either. They're not going anywhere. I made sure of that. The police are here, and the PRT, and just about everyone else. My sister and my cousin are talking to them. Blackwell is going to have a _very_ bad day, and as for those girls..."

The mystery woman snickered darkly. Despite herself and her bemusement and horror over what had happened, Taylor couldn't help but smile a little. For once, someone seemed to be on her side.

"Your dad's here too," the voice added. Taylor stiffened.

"Dad," she said faintly. "Oh, god."

"You need to tell him, Taylor," the woman said, squeezing her shoulder comfortingly. "Don't bottle it up any more. Trust in family to help. Trust your father, despite everything. He does love you more than anything, but he's also suffering from losing your mother, and he's made mistakes, just as you have. But it can get better, I promise you."

"How do _you_ know?" Taylor asked, having absorbed that with a lot of confusion about how much this person seemed to know and a slight amount of anger too. "You don't know what my life's been like for nearly _two years_."

The other person sighed a little ruefully. "I do know, all too well, Taylor, because the same thing happened to me."

There was silence for a handful of seconds then Taylor opened her eyes and turned her head, wiping strings of wet hair from her face. The eyes that met hers were not human at all, but the expression in them showed sympathy, compassion, and understanding. She stared at the reptilian countenance smiling back.

"Who… _are_ you?" she finally managed to say, wishing she had her glasses. But even without them she was sure she was looking at a humanoid lizard who was in the shower with her.

"My name is Saurial," the thing said, holding out a hand which she took automatically and shaking it. "As far as most people know." Saurial looked both ways very obviously, then up, then behind her. "But I have a secret." She held a finger to her lips, or whatever a lizard had in place of them. "Keep it under your hat, though."

"Secret?" Taylor asked, feeling totally bewildered.

"Yep." The face grinned.

She stared as it changed into a somewhat older but recognizable version of her own.

"When I said the same thing happened to me, I meant it," the other Taylor Hebert giggled, as she gaped. "The outcome was slightly different, though. Hey, want to come and see what happens next?"

She passed out, her mind finally having enough. As her eyes rolled up, she could have sworn the other Taylor said, "Oops. Too much?"


	2. Discussions

Danny blinked as the world went weird for a moment that felt like half of eternity compressed into a millisecond, then reformed into a view of a school hallway with a door in the wall. "What the hell?" he squawked in shock.

"Sorry, it's a little disorientating until you get used to it," the giant reptile standing next to him apologized as she took her hand off his shoulder. "Sort of a teleport. Don't worry about it."

"Look, who the hell _are_ you?" he demanded, turning to look up a distressingly long way at the huge scaled head inspecting him. The thing really was enormous, the head almost touching the ceiling and making the corridor feel cramped. "I only came with you because you said you'd take me to Taylor. I've never seen or heard of you before, are you some sort of Parahuman?" Even as he said it he realized the inanity of the question. What _else_ was an eight foot plus six-limbed sapient reptile woman in armor going to be other than a cape of some sort?

She smiled. "Not as such, but that'll do for now. Like I said, I'm a friend. My name is, as I told you, Raptaur. My sister Saurial is the one who rescued Taylor and both of them are in there, getting her cleaned up." Raptaur indicated the door, which was labeled as being the girl's changing room. "They'll be out in a moment. Taylor is fine, she wasn't really hurt as such, but there are some complications."

"Complications?" he asked, feeling even more worried.

"Yes. Sorry, I should wait until Taylor's here, then we can talk about it. Don't worry, it's nothing fatal or anything like that. Just… a little complicated."

"Complications generally are," he grumbled. "Hence the name."

"Quite," she laughed. "Let's go in here and wait for them. They won't be all that long and you and I should probably talk beforehand anyway." The reptilian cape moved to another door, this one to a classroom that was currently empty and dark. Turning the handle which resisted ineffectually before something in the lock simply snapped with a _ping_ and gave way, she opened the door and waved him through. After a second or two, he sighed and shrugged, entering the room. He'd come this far on adrenaline and worry, what was the harm in carrying on?

Squeezing in through the apparently too-small opening without much difficulty, Raptaur closed the door behind her and pulled down a blind over the window in it, one he could have sworn wasn't there the first time he'd looked, then motioned to a chair. He sat.

"Taylor has been being bullied by three girls for some considerable time," she said after they'd looked at each other for a moment. She was now lying with her lower body on the floor and her fore-torso erect, which put her huge head about level with his or a little lower. She was no less impressive even so. "She's been keeping it from you because she didn't want to worry you, and because you had your own issues to deal with."

He flushed. Then he looked at the floor, embarrassed and shamed.

"It's my fault," he muttered.

"No, it isn't," she replied. "Not entirely. Yes, you've made mistakes, as has she, but it's not too late. Trust me on that. She's going to need your support, and I think you could do with hers too. Throwing yourself into your work in an attempt to deal with the pain of losing your wife is understandable, but don't forget you still have someone who depends on you and needs you."

For some reason, there was a note in the other person's voice that made what she said have the ring of sincerity, as if she was speaking from personal experience. He looked up and met her eyes, frowning a little.

"She's as bad in some ways. Heberts are stubborn. Sometimes this gets in the way, although most of the time it's a good thing." Raptaur smiled a little, the tips of several razor sharp teeth showing. He suppressed a flinch with some effort. "Heberts also don't give up, not in the long term. So you'll get past this. But you need to be honest with each other."

Danny listened, then sighed. "I've failed her once already. Will she trust me again?"

"Yes, she will. And don't worry, she's getting her version of the same thing from my sister," Raptaur replied, smiling again. "They won't be long now." 

* * *

****  
Colin headed in the direction the unknown cape calling herself Raptaur had sent the hazmat team, finding the corridors empty of people. He could hear and see students and staff in the classrooms, barricaded in as was policy during a security lockdown, and assumed this had been called by the school administration as a precaution. He approved, if nothing else than because it made his job easier without people getting in the way.

He passed the door to the girl's locker room, looking down and seeing a trail of rancid blood and other things splattered on the floor outside it and heading in the direction he was going. His armor sensors showed at least one person inside the room, and for a brief moment he hesitated, wondering if he should check. Deciding that it would keep for now and that finding out what had started this entire affair was more important to determine, he moved on, now following the trail of biological waste, which led him around two more corners and down a corridor lined with lockers on both sides.

Nearly at the end, he found the BBFD personnel inspecting one of these which was missing its door, the locker itself caked in the same crap he'd been seeing on the floor. It was leaking out all around the opening, and looking inside he could see signs the thing had been at least a third full, possibly more. And for some considerable time based on the decomposition.

The smell was _appalling_. The concept that someone had been pushed into that crap made him wince, and simultaneously become more than slightly angry. The sight of handprints on the inner wall of the locker, vomit down the back wall, and footprints in the residue only made that anger grow. So far, it looked like Raptaur's information held up.

The lead technician looked at him. "There was definitely someone in here, Armsmaster," the man said, sounding revolted. "It's a mass of used tampons, garbage, other sanitary waste, you name it. Preliminary readings show a high concentration of a number of bacterial strains, none of which you'd want to come into contact with. The insect presence suggests it's been here for at least three days. The smell suggests considerably longer, I would guess since the Christmas holiday started. With the heating turned right down, it would be about right for this amount of decomp."

Colin nodded, his sensors having told him much of this already.

"It's a minimum level two biohazard," the man added. "Possibly level three depending on what our tests show. This entire corridor will need to be closed off and decontaminated, as will any place whoever was in here ended up."

"The girl's locker room, according to information received and the evidence I've seen," he replied. "Take samples of everything, as Raptaur suggested. Full forensic workup."

"Yes, sir," the man nodded, motioning to his team, who had already started work. "It's possible that the material could have leaked out of the locker and into the space under the tiles, in which case this entire wing of the school will require a full decontamination sweep. It may necessitate removal of this entire bank of lockers and the floor covering, possibly more depending on how far it spread. Some of the things that we're detecting are pretty nasty."

"Understood," he sighed. "Do what you need to do."

The lead technician nodded again, then went to work with his colleagues. Colin watched for a moment, feeling conflicted. On the one hand he didn't like being shown up by some Parahuman he'd never heard of who'd turned up out of nowhere and was acting like she owned the place, but on the other hand, so far everything she had said checked out all the way down the line. And it led him to some very annoying conclusions. Not to mention that this was a major biohazard incident no matter what the truth of it was and definitely required this sort of response. He didn't like to think of what could potentially happen if someone had decided to just clean it up and slop some bleach over it, which seemed likely based on the overall condition of the place. All it would take was one student with a slightly under-par immune system and an open wound and there could be dozens of people infected with something horrific in weeks.

Which, of course, would make things even worse when the truth came out, as it quite likely would have done.

Now, of course, the truth, or a variant of it, was _already_ out. He'd seen the cellphones at the windows out front and it was probably hopeless to try to lock down the information by now. Even the cops might pass some or all of this along, since there was no love lost between them and the PRT. One way or the other, there was no covering this up, even if he'd wanted to.

Turning to look at the three scared girls on the floor about twenty feet away, his glare fixed on one face in particular. On the whole, despite the damage this could do to his reputation and that of the PRT, he rather felt he _didn't_ want to cover it up. Not after having seen what _it_ was.

Sophia Hess, despite her operational effectiveness, was a highly unpleasant individual with a total lack of respect for protocol or authority and had been a thorn in his side since she'd joined the Wards. She was bad for morale, discipline, and overall teamwork. None of the other Wards liked her although they were all professional enough to work with her, and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone else who considered her easy to deal with. Several of the PRT staff considered her fairly good at her work, which to be fair she was when she tried, but she was also highly aggressive and prone to impulsive behavior. He was also fairly sure, although he hadn't been able to prove it yet, that she was still going off on her own sometimes and reverting to her original methods. Something that would sooner or later have caused trouble for them all, considering what those methods were.

Now, she was sitting on the floor of the corridor leaning against a locker, and visibly trying to come off as unconcerned and bored, although her vital signs according to his sensors showed she was highly agitated and merely hiding it well. She did have very good control of her external emotional signs, he was forced to admit.

The other two girls, a shorter and well developed red-head and a petite blonde girl, had no such control. The latter was sobbing into her hands, apparently terrified, and the red-head was staring defiantly at him with an odd glint in her eyes, even to him, which considering how much trouble he had reading people at times was impressive. But again, he could easily see she was highly stressed and ready to snap.

Walking over, he looked down at each of them in turn, then examined the metallic manacles and chain linking each of them to the foot-cubed block of gray material sitting on the floor in the middle of the corridor. His scanner couldn't work out what it was made of, which made him frown slightly. Prodding it with his armored foot, he noticed it didn't move at all, which suggested it was extremely heavy, even more so than steel would have been. He bent down and grabbed the chains where they sprouted out of the top of the block, apparently part of it, and tried to pick it up.

Nothing at all happened, even though the servos in his suit whined under the load. That meant it weighed in excess of two tons, which was impossible. Or it was somehow fastened to the floor, which was unlikely as he didn't think the tiles were strong enough to handle the force he'd used.

Putting that to one side for the moment, he studied the chains and manacles themselves for a few seconds. Each girl was connected to the block by several feet of chain, and considering that Sophia was _still_ connected to it, he came to the conclusion that whatever the material was it had unusual properties. Otherwise she would already have escaped from it, regardless of whether this gave away her cape identity. She wasn't disciplined enough to wait for rescue, he was certain. Past performance only reinforced that thought.

He saw there were four other bricks of the same unusual metallic substance scattered on the floor near the girls, two of them closer to Sophia. A moment's thought left him thinking that it was possible those were enclosing cell phones, which would explain why her emergency signal had stopped abruptly. And why none of the girls had called for help themselves once the cape had left with their victim.

"I would like an explanation," he said after finishing his examination.

Sophia opened her mouth, and he added, "A true one, please. There is enough evidence implicating all three of you in criminal behavior that I am unlikely to believe you are merely innocent victims." He was looking directly at Sophia when he said this.

"My father is a lawyer and when he hears about this he's going to be furious!" the red-head squawked in outrage, breaking her silence. The blonde was still crying, and Sophia was visibly fuming but seemed to be thinking too.

"And you are, Miss?" he asked, transferring his attention to the other girl.

"Emma Barnes. My dad is Alan Barnes, he works at the same law company as Carol Dallon. I want you to call him and get him here. I want that crazy lizard thing arrested and charged!" She was almost shouting, although her voice wavered.

"On what basis, Miss Barnes?"

"Kidnap, or assault, or something! Whatever, I don't know, you guys are supposed to deal with that! We were attacked by a scaly cape for god's sake!" she shouted.

"I see." He looked back at the locker, then returned his gaze to them. Sophia winced a little. "Attacked. For no reason, I assume?"

"Yes! She just turned up and attacked us," the girl said loudly, her eyes glancing to the side then back so fast he nearly missed it. "We were just minding our own business and there she was."

He checked his lie detection software, but he was already sure he'd see what he did in fact see.

 _87% confidence of falsehood_

"Minding your own business," he repeated, his voice flat. "And do you know why that locker was filled with a class two biohazardous material?"

"No," the girl stated firmly. "We have no idea. Hebert is nuts, she must have done it."

"Hebert?"

"Taylor Hebert. She's a total loser, a stupid horrible girl who no one likes," the Barnes girl spat. "She's always doing weird things, and trying to get people in trouble. The teachers never believe her. She must have put that stuff in her locker for some crazy reason."

92% confidence of falsehood, his HUD showed.

"I presume she then locked herself in there?" he asked mildly.

"Obviously," the girl snapped.

"And put the lock back on the door and locked it? From inside the locker, facing the wrong way?"

He bent down and picked up the mangled door from where it had been lying on the floor a few feet away, studying it. The lock was still attached to the hasp that had originally been part of the frame of the locker, and had been snapped off when the door was removed. Despite the relatively thin metal, that had taken considerable force, and the edges of the hole near the lock showed something had gone through it like it was clay. Based on the shape, he thought it was a hand, which was borne out by the depressions on the inside of the door where it had been pulled back. The hinges had snapped completely in half, he noticed.

Prodding the lock with an armored finger, he checked it was indeed closed and locked, then turned back to the girl, who seemed unsure now. "You realize that this would be quite difficult to arrange, I hope? A much more likely explanation is that a third party closed and locked this door, rather than Miss Hebert doing it herself. Assuming that is in fact the case, it tends to suggest that she was not a willing participant in this affair."

"She got one of her weird friends to do it," the Barnes girl sputtered, looking confused and angry. "Just to cause trouble. Like she always does."

 _94% confidence of falsehood_

"I believe you just stated that she had no friends?" he asked calmly. "Specifically, you said no one likes her. That implies that she would find it difficult to gain the aid of another person in perpetrating such a thing, even presuming she had a reason."

"You're trying to confuse me now," she snarled, looking scared and uncertain but not backing down.

"I suspect any confusion is self-induced, Miss Barnes," he sighed. "I tend to believe the information I received earlier, which is that you, Miss Hess, and I presume Miss Clements..." He looked at the blonde, who was now watching him with a rabbit in the headlights sort of expression. She nodded quickly, her eyes leaking tears. "…arranged to fill Miss Hebert's locker with the waste material for reasons known only to yourselves, then pushed her in and locked it. The evidence I can see backs up that information quite well." He looked meaningfully at the door, then the locker, before turning back to them.

"It wasn't us," Sophia said sullenly. "Someone is trying to get us in trouble."

"So I won't find, as one example, your fingerprints on this lock, Miss Hess?" he asked, looking at her and holding the mangled door up. She looked at it, then gritted her teeth. "As I thought. I feel sure I can say that you _are_ in trouble, whatever the full truth of this matter." Walking over to the hazmat people he asked, "Can you put this in an evidence bag for me?"

One of the techs produced a plastic bag large enough to hold the entire door, which was quickly enclosed and sealed. He signed the label, then went back to the girls, who were watching him with expressions that were all variations on the theme of worry. "I would say don't go anywhere until we understand what happened, but under the circumstances that would be redundant," Colin said, still angry but now more at these children and the situation they'd landed themselves and everyone else in rather than the ones who'd brought it to his attention. This was going to be a real mess, the Director was probably already at the point of wanting someone's head, and he was damned if it was going to be his. And having a Ward involved was only going to add to the whole thing.

"You can't just leave us here like this!" the Barnes girl shouted. He inspected the block and restraints again, experimentally trying a cutting tool on one of the chain links, which did absolutely nothing. He'd half expected that. Whatever the hell this stuff was it was extremely unusual and probably not susceptible to any portable tool he had available. It was also going to require specialist lifting equipment to shift it. Hopefully this Saurial person, who had presumably somehow made it, could remove it again.

"I don't have much choice, unfortunately, Miss Barnes," he stated, not without a certain amount of satisfaction at the way her face fell. "I will make sure your father is informed. But until we can move this anchor I'm afraid you will have to stay put."

As he returned to examining the locker and collecting his own data, he tried to tune out the shrieking the damn girl produced until Sophia hit her in the shoulder. Then they started whispering to each other, undoubtedly trying to come up with another story that wouldn't withstand even the slightest contact with reality. He ignored it as irrelevant. 

* * *

Hannah watched the huge black lizard watching _them_ , the damn thing still smiling like it knew something they didn't. There was no sign of hostile intent, but it sure _looked_ dangerous. She again wondered if these things were Case 53s, but once more couldn't come to a firm conclusion. Three Case 53s with the same overall theme in the same place would be utterly unprecedented, after all, as they were generally unique and popped up randomly as far as anyone could tell. Without being able to see if they had the tattoo-like mark somewhere on them, the only other method was to ask. And there was no guarantee that they'd answer truthfully.

Another thing that tended to work against that was the sheer confidence all the reptiles had. Normally a new Case 53 was at _best_ highly confused, and often quite distressed for very understandable reasons. Confused and distressed did _not_ describe the lizards.

It described practically everyone _else_ in the area, she thought with dark humor, but not _them_.

And if they'd been around long enough to get used to being what they are, track each other down, and team up, she was pretty damn sure people would have heard of them even if only by rumor.

So on the whole it seemed an unlikely possibility.

She sighed very, very quietly and just kept an eye on the huge reptilian figure, waiting for something to happen. No one seemed to want to approach the thing, which was apparently called Metis. And it seemed perfectly content to simply stand there and look back.

And smile.

It was getting annoying.

Suppressing another sigh, she checked on what everyone else was doing. The ambulance crew were leaning on their vehicle waiting patiently for something to do, and the cops were either staring at Metis too, seeming somewhat uneasy but slowly relaxing as nothing happened, or busying themselves with blocking the street with barricades they'd pulled out of the trunks of a pair of cruisers. They'd been just in time as one of the local TV stations had sent out a new team that had arrived shortly after the barricades had gone up, and now the reporter was arguing with one cop who was taking pleasure in being as difficult as possible about allowing them access.

The various PRT troopers were standing around looking like they didn't know what they were supposed to be doing. They were trained to handle a lot of situations, but this sort of standoff-that-wasn't was definitely unusual. No one wanted to be the one who kicked off a firefight, but a big lizard that just grinned at you was enough to make _anyone_ a little twitchy.

The people in the school were still sensibly staying put in the classrooms. She'd sent Battery and a couple of troopers in to go from classroom to classroom to make sure no one was hurt or in danger, and was getting intermittent reports back that showed nothing amiss except a lot of very confused people. Metis had simply watched them pass without attempting to interfere, which had made Hannah relax a little.

The thought of quietly evacuating the school out the back entrance had crossed her mind, but after some thought she decided against it. They had no way of knowing if there were more invisible lizards lurking around somewhere, since no one had noticed Metis herself until she'd suddenly been there. And there was no way of knowing whether the apparent placidity would abruptly change if they tried to be sneaky. She didn't want to find out the limit to their patience the hard way, and since the current situation appeared to be basically peaceful, there was ample reason to leave things as they were unless something changed. If it _did_ , though, she was ready to act.

Hopefully they could resolve this peacefully.

She could see that half the students were still holding phones up to the windows, a couple of them leaning out far enough to make her worry for their safety. It was a sure thing that this was all over the internet by now. Nothing that could really be done about that, but it added to the pressure, since she didn't want to start something that would end up on the six o'clock news under the headline ' _Bloodbath at Winslow High School_.'

 _That_ wouldn't go well on her resume…

Putting a finger on her earpiece, she selected the right channel and spoke. "Armsmaster? Have you found anything of interest?"

" _I have located the three girls in question and the site of the alleged attack,_ " he said moments later, his voice neutral. She could still tell, after long knowledge of the man, that he wasn't happy. " _The hazmat team is assessing the danger and taking samples for evidence. Our information appears to have been accurate. There is evidence that the victim was deliberately locked in with a serious biohazard for at least a short period of time, and it is very likely that the assailants are indeed as described. All three of them are restrained and unable to escape_."

"How are they restrained?" she asked, concerned and curious. If Shadow Stalker was still present, it had to be something very specific. Possibly an electrified system, which was what Colin had designed to hold the girl should it become necessary. If so, it suggested that this Saurial had significant information on the girl's powers which raised a number of questions.

" _They're manacled by the leg to a large weight using a length of chain,_ " he replied. " _I have no idea what the substance the restraints are made of is. I can't identify it, cut it, or lift the weight. It's much too heavy to be any normal metal, and harder than diamond._ "

Hannah felt shock. That eliminated _everything_ as far as she knew. It had to be the result of a Parahuman power. Especially if it could hold Sophia.

"All right, thanks. Nothing much is happening out here at the moment. The situation appears stable."

" _Good. I will be finished here shortly then I will locate Assault and the BBPD officers. Have they checked in?_ "

"Yes, they found Principal Blackwell in her office. She was apparently frantically shredding a number of documents. Enough was recovered that it suggests Raptaur may be correct that a number of crimes have been committed." She didn't specify what those were, but both of them knew that if Sophia was involved it implicated at least one person in the PRT.

" _Understood. Thank you for the update. I'll be in contact shortly._ "

"Have you seen Raptaur?" she asked before he could disconnect.

" _No_ ," he said, sounding thoughtful. " _I judged it appropriate to go after the evidence first. As long as her cousin is present, I feel we can assume she and her sister are still in the building. Presuming the situation remains stable talking to them can wait for now._ "

"All right. If you're sure. I'm going to have to update the Director, she's been trying to contact us for a few minutes now."

" _Please attempt to calm her down_ ," he sighed. " _Until we find out what happened, I would prefer not to have to deal with her as well._ "

"I'll see what I can do," she grumbled, not looking forward to it.

" _Armsmaster out_." The earpiece went dead. After bracing herself for a short while, she changed channel and spoke again.

"Miss Militia to Console. Can you connect me to the Director, please?"

" _Wait one, Miss Militia_ ," the console operator said in response. " _Director Piggot is standing by, she seems quite eager to talk to you._ " His voice was very dry.

Feeling a sensation of incipient doom, Hannah waited. 

* * *

Alan Barnes put his phone back in his pocket and sat staring at the opposite wall of his office for about ten seconds, his mind whirling. Then he jumped to his feet and shot out of the room, grabbing his coat on the way.

"Mr Barnes! What's going…?" his assistant managed to say as he literally ran past her.

He shouted back, "Family emergency!" and kept moving, soon arriving at the elevator and hammering the call button, then nearly hopping from foot to foot.

"Alan?" A familiar voice came from behind him, sounding concerned. "What's the rush? Where are you going?"

He looked back to see Carol Dallon peering at him with raised eyebrows. "I got a call from the PRT, Emma has been involved in some sort of Parahuman thing at school. I need to get there and find out what's going on, they wouldn't tell me over the phone."

Her face hardened even as it showed worry. "Is she all right?"

"I don't know! The guy just said there was an encounter with a previously unknown Parahuman and that Emma was somehow involved. They said they needed to speak to me." His heart rate was about twice what it should be, and when the elevator arrived with a soft chime he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"I see," the woman replied. She was now looking thoughtful and somewhat irritated. "Typical PRT. OK, you get there, I'll make sure people know you're out of the office for an indefinite time for family reasons, then do some investigating of my own."

"Thanks, Carol," he said with a quick worried smile, before jumping into the elevator and hitting the parking garage button. As the door slid shut he saw her turn and walk quickly away. Putting his coat on, he checked his keys were in the pocket, then waited impatiently as the numbers ticked down on the display next to the control panel, fearing that something appalling had happened to his youngest daughter. 

* * *

****  
Taylor moaned a little as she stirred, feeling a mild headache come and then subside almost immediately. What the hell had happened? Where was she?

Then she remembered and her eyes shot open.

The duplicate Taylor was sitting on one of the locker room benches watching her, while she herself was on another one on the opposite side of the shower area a couple of yards away propped against the wall. She stared for several shocked seconds, then looked down, to see that she'd been wrapped in an enormous fluffy towel, which was warm and comfortable. Raising a hand to her her head she discovered her hair was still wet so it hadn't been long since she was in the shower.

Looking around nervously she saw her clothes in a plastic bag on another bench, thankfully sealed, as based on the crap she could make out through the clear film the smell would otherwise have been horrible. Her stomach heaved at the memory of what she'd gone through, making her retch a little, but she managed to suppress it moments later.

"Don't think about it for now," the copy of herself advised, her voice sounding almost exactly like Taylor's own did when she'd heard it in recordings, and concerned as well.

"Who _are_ you?" Taylor finally said, feeling confused, scared, and upset.

"I'm Taylor Anne Hebert," the girl replied, smiling gently.

"But _I'm_..." Taylor fell silent again, staring. She thought hard, then tried again. "That's _my_ name."

"I know."

"You're _me?_ "

"Kind of. In a way. But not really."

The girl seemed sympathetic, but there was also a look of slight amusement glinting in her eye, a look Taylor recognized from better times. She'd seen it in her mother's eyes when the older woman posed her a logic puzzle as a child and was curious to see if a ten year old could work it out. It made her stop and think again, rather than hotly demand to know what the _fuck_ was going on.

After a number of seconds, she lifted her eyes to meet the other person's. "Time travel?" she tried, this seeming like a viable possibility under the conditions of sanity having apparently entirely left the building.

"Good try, but no." The alternate Taylor smiled and shook her head.

"Oh. Um… Clone?"

"Nope."

"Biotinker construct?"

"Nope. And pretty much the same thing, I'd have thought."

"Robot double?"

"Better. No."

"Hallucination?"

"No."

"Master effect?"

"Nope."

She sighed. "Projection?"

The girl shook her head, her amusement clear on her face.

"Damn it." Taylor was now feeling intrigued and her sick sensation from what she'd gone through was diminishing under the impetus to know what exactly was happening. "Parallel world visitor?" she asked after thinking hard for a while.

"Ah, now we're getting somewhere," the other her smiled. "Not quite, but it'll do."

"You're saying you're me from another world?" Taylor looked at her double with skepticism. The girl held out a hand and rocked it from side to side.

"In a way, if you look at it right. Not like Earth Aleph and Earth Bet. It's more complicated than that, but it's enough for now."

"This is some trick," she grumbled.

"Why would it be a trick?" her apparent alternate inquired, her head on one side like a cat's. "Is it so unbelievable that another version of yourself would appear at just the right moment to pull you out of a horrible situation that three girls including one who had been your best friend your entire life until she inexplicably turned on you had perpetrated?"

Giving the other person a flat look of annoyance, Taylor finally replied, "What do _you_ think?" After a second, she added, "And how the hell do you know all that?"

"Because pretty much the same thing happened to me, some time ago," the girl said, her smile fading. "Emma turned on me, hooked up with Sophia, and the pair of them and Madison made my life hell for more than a year. But in my case, I was in that fucking locker for hours, not under two minutes."

Taylor shuddered at the thought.

"Yeah, it wasn't fun. But it went a little differently in my case. In the long run, it worked out really well. It took me a while to realize that at the time, and a lot longer to find out _why_ Emma did what she did."

Staring at the girl who claimed to be another version of herself, Taylor eventually asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer, "Why did she?"

There was a long pause. Then the other girl sighed. "Because she's mentally ill, due to a horrific incident involving the ABB about two years back. It left her damaged and she met Sophia, who is basically a sociopath bordering on being a psychopath, at exactly the wrong time." Taylor listened in horror to the story she was told, and felt sick at the thought of what her childhood friend had gone through.

"Remember that this doesn't _excuse_ what she did to you, or to all the other people she was bullying," her alternate said when she'd finished. "It _explains_ it, but that's all. It doesn't invalidate your own pain and fear."

Taylor was silent for some minutes, thinking about what she'd been told. Then she asked, "And what's Sophia's problem?"

"Ah. That's a little more complicated. She's also not right in the head but for different reasons. I'll tell you more after we talk to your dad."

"Dad!" Taylor sat up suddenly, grabbing at the towel around her body. "What am I going to tell him?"

"The truth. About all of it." The other girl watched as she twitched, feeling worried. "I know why you've kept it from him, but trust me, you need to tell him."

"He's got too many things to think about, he doesn't need me adding to them," Taylor sighed, slumping back. "He hardly even speaks to me these days. I don't speak to him either… we just seem to have drifted apart since Mom..." She felt tears come to her eyes.

The other Taylor got up, moved across the small room, and sat next to her, putting an arm around her shoulder. "I know what you're going through, and I know how he is. I had the same experience, pretty much. He made mistakes, a lot of them, and so did you. And me. But in my case, after the locker, when I told him everything, it was the best thing I ever did. It helped both of us heal and now our relationship is as good as it ever was, probably better. He loves you, Taylor, I can guarantee that. Talk to him, let him talk to you, accept that no one is perfect and we all make mistakes, and move on."

She stopped talking and just sat there waiting. After a moment, Taylor looked at her. At close range she could see that the other girl really was the spitting image of her. It was freaky as hell, but for some reason she was feeling a lot less worried now, and while still very shaken, no longer like she wanted to curl up into a ball and cry for days.

"You think so?" she asked quietly.

"I _know_ so," the other Taylor nodded, smiling gently. "He's just down the hallway in another room waiting for you and talking to my sister. She's filled him in on some of it, but we're waiting for you before we explain everything."

Seizing on one of the several things about that statement that stood out, Taylor asked, "You have a _sister?_ " She'd always wondered what having a sibling would be like, although Emma had at one time been pretty close to what she imagined.

"Sort of." The girl grinned. "It's complicated."

"Everything seems to be lately," Taylor muttered, making her companion snicker.

"It gets better," she chuckled, releasing her. Standing up, the girl was suddenly holding a neatly folded pile of clothing in her hands. Taylor gaped. "Here you go, get dressed and we can go and talk to him. Then deal with all the fallout from this whole thing, which is going to be fun."

"Where did those come from?" Taylor asked in astonishment, taking the clothing and looking closely at it. It appeared to be a duplicate of what she'd been wearing earlier only brand new. Looking suspiciously at the plastic bag, she saw it still contained her original clothes.

"I made them."

"How?"

Her duplicate smirked. "It's one of my many useful powers. I can magically create clothing."

Taylor stared. "You have _powers?_ " she echoed. In retrospect this seemed to make sense under the circumstances, since otherwise how had the girl got here in the first place?

She was also thinking about in the shower, and the humanoid reptile that she could have sworn she'd seen before this girl had suddenly been there…

"Oh, yes, so many powers it's almost unfair," the other Taylor laughed. "Like I said, it worked out pretty well for me in the long run. And really, _really_ badly for my Sophia, but that's another story."

After a long moment, Taylor put the clothes on the bench beside her and felt her hair. It was still soaking wet. "Can your magical powers do something with wet hair?" she asked with a sudden burst of sardonic humor. The situation had become so fucking surreal it seemed the best approach other than screaming in horror and running in little circles, which she _had_ considered for a moment.

"Sure. Here, bend over and put your hair down," the girl grinned, motioning. "Yep, like that. Now hold still."

Staring at the floor with her long hair almost touching it, Taylor wondered what the other girl was going to do. Moments later warm water cascaded over her head, drenching her hair and running off it to the floor, then disappearing down the drain in the middle. "I fail to see how making my hair _wetter_ is going to dry it," she commented acidly.

"Ah, there's a trick to it. This is only the first part," her alternate's voice said with humor. "First I get rid of the original water by washing it out with new, _special,_ water."

"What's special about it?" she asked.

"Well, the special part is that when all the tap water is gone, like about now, I can do this." She heard the girl snap her fingers.

Abruptly every last trace of damp disappeared. Her hair was now bone dry. "What the _fuck?_ " she said in shock.

"Good trick, isn't it?" the girl said with a wide grin as she felt her hair, then stared at her. "There are all sorts of cool things you can do with matter creation powers."

"Matter creation..." Taylor gaped. That sounded… terrifying.

"Among other things. But that's sure one of the more useful things. OK, get dressed and we can go talk to your Dad."

"I wish _I_ had powers, maybe I could have stopped the bitches," Taylor muttered under her breath as she stood up and picked up the new clothes, one hand holding the towel against her. She went into one of the changing cubicles and pulled the door shut, then dropped the towel on the floor.

"You do," the other Taylor said through the door.

She froze. There was a pregnant pause.

"What."

"You Triggered in that locker. I'm sorry about that, I tried to get there sooner, but like I said earlier, this version of Winslow isn't quite the same as mine, so I went the wrong way at first." Alternate Taylor sounded regretful.

Taylor was still frozen in shock. "I have powers?" she squeaked.

"Yep. I could see the activity in your brain, you've definitely got an active gemma and corona pollentia."

Ignoring the ' _seeing_ ' part of that for the moment, Taylor tried to remember why that sounded familiar. After a moment she recognized the terms as describing the thing in the brain that appeared to mark a Parahuman out from a normal person.

"Why didn't I notice?" she asked herself, but the other girl apparently heard.

"I used something a friend of mine came up with to temporarily suppress it," her alternate replied. "It was adding to your stress. I thought it would allow you to recover more quickly if we didn't need to deal with that at the same time. If your power is what I think it is, it could cause problems due to the sensory overload."

"What… what do you think it is?" she asked nervously. Her imagination was running wild about now and she was holding her clothing numbly in her hands, wondering what fresh hell was about to descend on her from on high.

"Well, if you're like another version of us I met a while back, it's probably a pretty impressive Master ability. Don't worry, though, it most likely only affects insects, crustaceans, and other arthropods. I think."

Following another long pause as she tried to get to grips with that little gem of information, Taylor very slowly got dressed, then picked the towel up and folded it neatly, not able to think of anything else to do until she absorbed the new concept. When she opened the door, the other girl was sitting on one of the benches waiting patiently, looking mildly amused. Still. Taylor was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with her alternate self as the other person seemed to be smiling most of the time in her admittedly limited contact with her.

"Insects?" she queried plaintively.

"Yep. That seems the most likely one. The thing that gives you powers is a massively multitasking little bastard, it specializes in that, and seems to like Heberts." Alternate Taylor shrugged with a smirk. "What can I say? We're likable."

"Insects?" she asked again. "Wait, _what_ thing that gives me powers?" she immediately added as the girl's other words sank in.

"Oh, the source of powers are a sort of huge alien organic supercomputer sent here by hostile giant aliens, but that's not important right now," the fucking girl said casually, making Taylor stare at her yet again. This was getting silly. "I'll tell you more once we get all this sorted out. We've got a whole information pack on it."

"Are you _sure_ you're a version of me?" She looked askance at her duplicate. "Because you seem… kind of weird."

"I'm _very_ weird, even my friends tell me _that_ ," the girl responded with a wide grin. "You have no idea. But I'm also a friend and I do genuinely want to help you. Come on, let's go see your dad and stop him fretting. He's good at fretting."

"God, I know _that_ much," Taylor sighed. "That's one of the reasons I didn't want to tell him."

"Doesn't matter now. Tell him, fix your relationship or at least start the process, and things will improve. Come on." Her other self hopped to her feet and waved her towards the door.

"What about the towel?" Taylor asked weakly, still trying to work out if all this was some weird sort of hallucination caused by toxic gasses inside her locker.

"What towel?"

She looked down at her empty hands, then glared at the other girl, who was snickering.

"Somehow I get the impression that you annoy a lot of people wherever you come from," she remarked, which made her companion laugh more loudly.

"Sometimes. Most of the time I just make them look at me in a funny way. Yep, exactly like _that_." She pointed at Taylor's face.

"Oh, one other thing before we go out," the girl added, looking vastly amused now. "Don't worry, it's still me."

Taylor blinked hard, then shook her head. No, it was still there.

"You're a lizard."

"Sort of. Not really, but that will do for now," the same lizard-girl she thought she'd seen in the shower replied, her voice now quite different and with a slight and very odd accent. The grin was the exact same one, though.

" _How_ are you a lizard?" she asked with enormous patience. "Actually, _why_ are you a lizard?"

"It's part of my power, and why not?" the reptilian figure, which was wearing a really impressive set of dark blue armor, replied in a contented tone. "Don't you like lizards? I like lizards."

"You _are_ a lizard."

"Oh, you noticed?"

"Do you do this a lot?"

"Wouldn't _you_ if you could?"

They stared at each other, Taylor being the one who started giggling first. "Holy shit, you'd drive people completely nuts..."

"That has happened, I have to admit," the now-reptilian version of herself said. "Don't worry, we fixed it. Let's go see your dad."

She opened the door and waved Taylor through. For some reason, although she was still massively confused about almost everything and reeling from all the information she'd got out of the blue, Taylor was feeling a lot better than she probably should have been considering what she'd been through earlier in the day. It might be shock, it might be the thought of telling her father after all this time, it might be the crazy lizard who looked like her sometimes.

It was probably that last one, thinking about it.

Shaking her head in mild disbelief, she went out into the corridor and headed for the door on the other side that the reptilian girl indicated. She was half-way there when she realized she wasn't wearing glasses any more and could still see perfectly.


	3. Confusion

Putting her phone down on the table and tapping the hands-free icon, Sarah Pelham quickly brought up a web browser on her computer and typed in a couple of words, then looked at the results. She clicked a couple of times.

There was a short pause.

"Good god," she said in shock. "What the hell is _that?!_ "

" _No one appears to know_ ," her sister's voice said from the phone. " _There are apparently three of them at Winslow. Two are inside, that last one is standing guard, or something like that. Armsmaster, Assault, Battery, and a number of PRT people are in there too, along with some cops. No one is saying precisely why this is happening, but it must be something serious. I've even found out that there seems to be a hazmat team there as well._ "

"Yes, I can see their vehicle in this video," Sarah confirmed, frowning. "What the hell is going on at that awful place? And who are these capes?"

" _If they even are capes_ ," Carol said, sounding puzzled and somewhat angry. " _They turned up out of nowhere from what the various sources on PHO are claiming, and no one has ever heard of them before. There's that one sort of reptilian Case 53 in Houston, but he's only a little scaly in places, and of course Newter from Faultline's group too, but neither of them look anything like this lot. They haven't claimed affiliation with any group yet either, villain or hero. Or even rogue for that matter_."

"Very strange, and very concerning," Sarah commented, clicking on another video, this one taken from inside the school on the other side than the first one. It showed another, even larger, reptilian form apparently talking to Armsmaster and Miss Militia a little while ago from the timestamp, both the Protectorate heroes looking wary and ready to act. "Why is the PRT not doing something about it? If some unknown but probably dangerous group is essentially holding an entire high school hostage for some reason..."

" _I have no idea what's going on_ ," Carol growled. " _None of my contacts at the PRT will tell me anything. I'm not convinced they know either, to be honest. The BBPD only told me that there is an ongoing situation but it appears non hostile for now, then hung up on me. And with Alan running out of here like he was on fire, after getting a call his daughter was involved… It's more than just a little worrying_."

"What do you want to do about it, though?" Sarah played still another video, then shook her head a little. "I mean, if the PRT is handling things..."

Her sister snorted dismissively. " _We have no idea if they are handling things. Considering how they tend to stand around with their collective thumbs up their asses even while the E88 and the ABB are facing off unless the Parahumans start breaking too much of the surrounding scenery, I wouldn't be surprised to see they're just waiting to see if it gets worse. By which time it could be too bad for them to actually do anything. You remember back in '09?_ "

Sarah winced a little. She did. "But that was different, there really were hostages then and everyone knew it. This time, no one seems to be sure if this is in any way genuinely hostile." Reading a series of comments under another video, she added, "There are people here claiming that these… lizards, or whatever they are… intervened in some sort of crime that was going on. A bullying campaign that turned into assault or something like that."

" _I've read those, yes, and they're very disorganized. Some mention of a Ward possibly being involved, which is odd, as to my knowledge all of them should be in school at Arcadia right now anyway._ " Her sister muttered to herself too quietly for the phone to pick it up, then went on, " _But I'm not completely convinced. And I don't trust the PRT in the first place_."

"We all know that, Carol," Sarah sighed. "I think you're doing them a disservice in many cases, but we've had that argument. Over and over."

" _And I don't want to have it again right now, thank you_ ," the other woman snapped. " _I am well aware of your own ideas about it. That can wait. Right now, my feeling is that with nearly a thousand children and teachers stuck in the middle of this, it would be a good idea to make sure that someone is thinking of them, rather than allowing them to be the pawns in yet another PRT operation._ "

"You could be blowing this all up to something it isn't," Sarah warned.

" _Or I could be entirely right and the PRT are going to wait so long to intervene just because they're worried about something pointlessly political that it turns into a massacre_ ," her sister replied in harsh tones. " _It wouldn't be the first time_."

"Unfortunately, I can't completely deny that, much as I'd like to," the Pelham woman finally acknowledged. "So what do you want to do?"

" _I think you, Neil and Crystal should go there and see what's really happening,_ " Carol said. " _She's still at home, I believe?_ "

"Yes, she's going back to college next week, so she's still here."

" _Good. I'll keep digging and see what I can find from here. If things go south, I can be with you very quickly_."

"What about Mark?"

" _What about him?_ " Carol said with a sigh. Sarah winced again, but that was a can of worms she didn't intend to open right now.

"And Vicky? Or Amy too, in case healing is needed?"

" _Leave Vicky out of it for now, she's more likely to cause a problem than solve it until we have a chance to evaluate things_ ," her sister responded. " _The girl means well but she does tend to leap before looking at times_." This was, in Sarah's opinion, completely accurate. She also noticed that her sister didn't mention the other name and inwardly sighed. Poor girl. One day she was going to have to sit her sister down and have a very long talk…

"Fine. I'm still not sure we should get involved, but I can admit I might be wrong. We'll go and get some more information on the situation, then we can work out if we do need to do anything or not. I want you to agree that if the PRT _are_ satisfactorily handling things that we'll step back. I don't want New Wave to get sucked into something we didn't need to be anywhere near unless there's no choice."

" _All right, I can agree to that. I just have a bad feeling about all this._ "

"Which is what you say every time, Carol. Not always with a good reason." Sarah tapped the disconnect icon before the other woman could reply, smiling a little at for once getting the last word. Her smile faded as she looked back at the screen, scrolling through the PHO feed for a few seconds more. Then she stood and called for her husband and daughter, still thinking that with any luck this would all turn out to be a false alarm.

She wished she could be sure of that.

* * *

Emily listened to the verbal report Miss Militia was giving while thinking hard. She was also watching live video from various cameras carried by the PRT teams and mounted on their vehicles, most of which were focused on the black reptilian figure of the cape apparently called ' _Metis_.' The lizard-like creature was simply watching them right back, looking like it was finding the entire thing slightly funny, and making no hostile moves at all. It appeared to be very patient if nothing else. While she watched, it produced what looked like a cell phone from a compartment that opened in the chest plate of the segmented armor it was wearing, then turned its attention to manipulating the thing as if it wasn't being stared at by about twenty armed troopers.

She snarled under her breath. The damn thing was just rubbing it in at this point.

"All right, I understand. And there is no sign of any more of these things? Or any indication of where they came from?"

" _No, Director,_ " the other woman's voice said. " _We sent out a team to canvas the area and take witness statements, but so far no one appears to have seen anything. Raptaur simply disappeared, a couple of the troopers said it was teleportation, although I missed it. If that's correct we have no idea what the range could be, so it's entirely plausible that they came from outside the city. We'll keep looking but I'm not hopeful we'll find anything._ "

Suppressing a curse, Emily thought some more. So far, there was no real hostile intent apparent, despite some of the oddities of this case. Still, no one could miss that there was a heavily armored half ton reptile guarding the front entrance to the school, with unknown motives, even if it was now seemingly playing Tetris on its phone.

She squinted at one of the video feeds, which had the angle to see the screen of the device.

Yes, it was playing Tetris. Very quickly indeed, showing if nothing else the lizard had extremely fast reactions. Or possibly just played Tetris a lot.

"This is fucking ridiculous," she muttered under her breath. As if she had heard, Metis looked up for a moment, directly at the camera Emily was watching, grinned a little more widely, then went back to her damn game.

" _What do you want us to do, Ma'am?_ " Miss Militia said after a moment or two. " _So far things appear peaceful, despite the… unusual aspects… of the entire situation_."

With a growing sense of impotent frustration, Emily considered the question. Ideally she'd like to arrest _everyone_ involved in… whatever this was… and throw them into interrogation rooms until she knew exactly what the fuck was going on. There seemed little doubt that Hess was in this up to her neck, and the preliminary results produced by putting pressure on the girl's handler suggested that the rot went much deeper. _Someone_ was going to pay the price for that and she'd have preferred it not to be her. Although she suspected no one was going to come out of it smelling of roses whatever happened next, and she was where the buck stopped after all. To her great irritation.

But these reptilian capes, as bizarre as they were, appeared on the face of it so far to also be non hostile at this point and she was highly reluctant to push too hard too fast just in case that changed. With no idea at all about their abilities, other than definitely having a decent Brute rating, a good Stranger one, and possibly a very high Mover one, it would be foolish to throw away the chance to resolve things without firing a shot. It irked her to an enormous level but it seemed that the lizards, at least for now, held the position of driving events.

Grinding her teeth a little, she finally responded, "Stay alert but do not initiate hostilities unless the situation changes. We need more information since we've been completely blindsided by all this and I don't want to find out the hard way they have half a dozen more lurking in the vicinity. As long as they're content to just talk, we talk."

" _Understood, Director_."

"Piggot out." She tapped the button on the headset then pulled it from her ear, resisting the urge to throw it at the screens. She _hated_ working on a lack of information. That got people killed, or worse.

Fuming, she went off to lean on Sophia Hess's supposed responsible adult some more, if only to ensure that someone else was having a worse time than she was.

* * *

When the door opened and his daughter walked in, Danny jumped to his feet. She dashed over and hugged him, he wrapping his arms around her in response and holding her. "I'm sorry, Dad," she said into his chest, almost crying, then held him harder.

"It's my fault, Taylor," he replied, feeling ill at the realization he'd come to that he'd virtually abandoned her, at least emotionally, at the worst point in her life when she most needed the support. Losing Annette had broken both of them, but in his grief he'd lost sight of the bigger picture, and who it included. This had brought that back all at once and he was having trouble dealing with it.

Looking past her at Raptaur, he saw the reptilian woman was smiling a little, and seemed approving. He nodded to her very slightly then went back to just holding his daughter as she cried for a while, the emotional release making him feel like he should as well. Somehow he suppressed it since here and now wasn't the right time or place to break down.

A few minutes passed in silence, Raptaur and the more humanoid reptile, presumably her sister Saurial, that had come in behind Taylor allowing them privacy by staying on the other side of the classroom. He could hear people rushing around outside in the corridor but for some reason no one interrupted, which he was grateful for.

Eventually Taylor sniffled, then looked up and met his eyes. He was struck by how tall she was getting, not having really noticed in recent months. It was with a slight sense of surprise that he also realized she didn't have her glasses on, her green eyes clear although slightly puffy from the tears. Wiping one away with his finger, he asked, "Where are your glasses?"

"I don't know," she replied, "but I can see fine. I think she did something." His daughter pointed at the new lizard, who nodded, smiling.

"I did, I fixed it. We have some pretty decent healing abilities and you needed some work anyway due to that damn locker. It fixed your eyesight at the same time."

Both Heberts exchanged an incredulous glance before Taylor turned to the one he thought was called Saurial. "You can heal _too?_ " she demanded in tones of wonder and aggravation. "Is there any power you _don't_ have?"

"We do sort of collect them," Saurial chuckled. "It's a very long story. Are you feeling better?"

"More or less," Taylor said, releasing Danny and sitting on one of the desks. She studied Raptaur with an expression of awe. "Wow, you're _huge_..."

"She's the runt of the family," the much larger reptile snickered, indicating her sister, who stuck out a very long and forked tongue. So fast he nearly missed the motion, Raptaur grabbed it between two talons. "Don't be rude."

"Let go of my tongue, you bully," Saurial said around the obstruction. "What have I ever done to you?"

Danny watched in disbelief as they started mildly arguing, Raptaur still holding her sister's tongue, which seemed to be nearly a foot long. Hearing quiet giggling he looked to see his daughter also watching and visibly trying not to laugh out loud.

"You are… a little unusual," he finally said to the scaly pair. Releasing Saurial's tongue, which whipped back into her sister's mouth, Raptaur looked at him and smiled.

"We do hear that a lot," she said with good humor. "Might be something in it."

Saurial turned to Taylor and cocked her head a little to the side. "Do you want to explain what happened, or would you like me to do it?"

His daughter stilled, then slumped a little with a sigh. "Do I have to?"

"It would definitely help both of you, that much I can tell you, but I won't force you into it." The lizard-girl kept her eyes on Taylor, who took a couple of deep breaths, nodded, then looked at Danny who braced himself for something unpleasant.

He was right. It was.

"Emma?" he exploded half way through her initial explanation, feeling his temper rise and holding it down with a deliberate act of will. " _Emma_ is one of your bullies?"

She nodded.

"Does Alan know?" he demanded. "Or Zoe?"

"As far as I'm aware neither her parents or her sister know what she's been doing," Saurial put in, causing both Heberts to look at her. "But it wouldn't be hard to find other students here that would verify any of this, if we tried."

He clamped his jaw shut, feeling a muscle in his cheek twitch, then nodded to his daughter to continue. When she finally finished describing the various indignities that those three little bitches had visited on her for so long, he was mad enough to chew barbed wire, feeling a vast amount of guilt that he hadn't even _noticed_ that Taylor's life-long best friend had betrayed her in the most horrible of ways, and helpless to think what to do next.

 _Then_ she told him about the locker.

* * *

Sergeant Holder, PRT, looked around in puzzlement. "That was the loudest obscenity I've ever heard," he stated. Several of his squad nodded wisely, seeming impressed.

After a moment when nothing horrible happened, he shrugged and got back to work.

* * *

When he finally calmed down, Taylor was staring at him in shock and both the lizards seemed to be taking notes. They looked up from their pads, then smiled, before putting them away. "Not bad," Saurial snickered.

Embarrassed at his loss of temper but feeling he had plenty of provocation for it, Danny breathed heavily for a while, then retook his seat. "I'm sorry," he said much more quietly when his breathing returned to normal. "I try not to let it get away with me but sometimes it's hard. Times like today."

"Understandable," Raptaur told him with a sympathetic expression. "Are you all right now?"

"No, but I'll deal with it," he sighed. "OK. Is that all? Or are there more revelations that are going to push my blood pressure through the roof?"

"Um..." His daughter quickly looked at the other pair, then back at him. His heart sank. "The school sort of… probably… knew about all of this? And didn't do anything? I think?"

Clamping his mouth shut, Danny counted to ten in his head, very slowly. Then did it again twice more. Eventually he nodded. "I see. So it's not only criminal assault on the part of those three, but contributory negligence _at least_ on the part of the school?" She looked at the lizards again then shrugged.

"Fucking wonderful. Remind me why this hellhole is still standing?"

"Not all the teachers here are that bad, but there are certainly a number who shouldn't be allowed near children," Saurial told him. "And the Principal is… unprincipled."

He _almost_ smiled.

"I'm going to have her head on a pike if it's the last thing I do," he snarled.

"Don't worry about that, the PRT have already arrested her."

"The PRT?" He stared for a moment. "Why would _they_ arrest her, rather than the cops?"

Saurial and Raptaur exchanged glances. They seemed a little uncertain for the first time since he'd met either of them. Eventually, the lizard girl sighed with a small shrug. "It's not going to be a secret for long, assuming it hasn't already got out," she said. "OK. Don't get too worked up, but Sophia Hess is a Parahuman."

"What." His voice was completely flat.

"And a Ward."

Taylor snapped her head around to look at the reptilian girl, then got a very thoughtful look on her face, while Danny squeezed his hands into fists so hard they went white. He was doing everything in his power not to scream in rage, rush out of the room, and punch Armsmaster in the face. Sure, he'd get wrecked in return, but it might be worth it and the guy _did_ have his chin and mouth exposed…

"Shadow Stalker," Taylor said in stunned tones a moment later, distracting himself from fantasies of doing horrible things to the PRT. "It's got to be _Shadow Stalker_." He looked at her as did the reptiles.

"Yes."

"Fuck me, _that_ 's how they kept getting into my locker!?" his daughter exploded.

"Almost certainly," Raptaur nodded.

"That utter _bitch_ ," Taylor hissed in tones that he'd have expected to have come from one of the other two. She sounded absolutely furious now, rather than just depressed like she'd been during her retelling of the events of her high school hell.

"As I said, she's not right in the head." Saurial shook her own. "Girl's at best a sociopath, she doesn't understand normal social interactions like most people do. When she Triggered, I think that got much worse, but I'm pretty sure she was always somewhat twisted. Powers often amplify aggression but normally build on what was already present in our experience."

"You seem to know a lot about that part of it," Danny suggested, still angry as hell but also intrigued.

"We've put in a lot of time studying the subject," Raptaur replied. She glanced at her sister, who looked back, then turned to his daughter.

Taylor returned the gaze for a long few seconds.

"Speaking of powers..." Saurial began, raising one of what would normally be an eyebrow. Taylor seemed to slightly shrink in on herself, then took a breath and nodded firmly. She swiveled her head to look at him.

"Saurial told me that… I Triggered in the locker. Apparently _I_ have powers now."

Danny stared at her before looking at the lizard girl with a bewildered expression. She shrugged. "She's right, I'm afraid."

He went back to his daughter. While he was by no means an expert, he'd read about Trigger events and they were generally considered to happen during conditions of stress beyond human bearing. That his daughter had been driven to those extremes, by schoolchildren, one of whom was actually a _Ward…_ He was so far beyond being angry now he'd ended up eerily calm. Putting his hand on Taylor's he held it.

"What is your power?" he asked quietly.

She pointed at Saurial. "She told me it was a Master power." His heart jumped, Masters were generally considered bad news by almost everyone, for good reasons. The only ones who were more suspicious in the eyes of the public and the PRT were Biotinkers. "But it only affects insects and things like that."

He felt relief. That didn't sound too bad, compared to the worry about controlling humans. After all, how much danger could an insect Master be?

"So what can you do?" he asked curiously, pushing his omnipresent rage to the side in lieu of discovering what had happened to his daughter.

"I don't know," she admitted with a small frown. "When I woke up in the shower I felt really weird, but Saurial did something to suppress my power and I can barely tell something's different right now. It feels strange though."

"Some time ago one of our people worked out a temporary method to suppress Parahuman abilities," Saurial explained, walking over to them and looking down at Taylor, then turning to him. "There are permanent methods of removing them, but they tend to be dangerous and don't always work. This is safe although it doesn't last forever. It's sort of like a controlled version of what some other powers can do. If Taylor's ability is actually what I think it is, it dumps a hell of a lot of data into her mind which takes some getting used to. If she'd ended up with that all turned on at once on top of the trauma of the locker she could have spent several days almost in a fugue state until her mind got used to the change, which could also cause issues with the power itself."

"Her mind would block parts of it out, basically," Raptaur added. "As a self defense mechanism."

"The thing is that powers adapt to a point and the resulting changes could cause all sorts of weird problems sooner or later, and also potentially leave some significant mental trauma," Saurial went on after her sister finished. "What I did will slowly wear off and allow her power to come in gradually, which should give her time to acclimatize to it. We use the same system back home when we find a newly Triggered Parahuman with certain classes of power."

She smiled at Taylor. "I can turn it back on deliberately, and later I'll do that to a small degree so you can experiment, but it's probably best to allow it to otherwise do what it's designed to. Trust me that it will make things easier on you."

Taylor looked at the lizard for some time, glanced at him, then nodded slowly. "I guess if you think it's sensible I can live with that." She smiled briefly. "I'm really curious now too."

"Your power isn't particularly flashy for the most part, but it's pretty powerful even so," Saurial grinned. "You'll find it's got some interesting possibilities."

After absorbing this latest revelation, Danny spoke up. "Look, I'm more grateful than I can express that you've helped Taylor like this, and told me everything you did, but… I have to wonder, why _have_ you helped? I mean, where did you come from, how did you know to turn up right at the critical moment, or for that matter _who are you?_ " He looked hard at both of them. "I've sure never heard of you guys before but you know way more about all this than I'd have expected. And based on what you've just said, more about powers than anything I've ever read _anywhere_. Are you some sort of secret government group or something?"

He smiled a little grimly. "Armsmaster certainly didn't seem to know about you, so it would have to be _very_ secret."

Raptaur chuckled in a deep voice. "We're not associated with the government," she told him. Then her expression became what he could only consider mischievous. "Not the human one, at least."

He stared at her for a long moment.

"The… _human…_ one?" he echoed weakly.

"Long story," Saurial said, grinning. She glanced at her sister, then looked at Taylor who seemed when he also looked at his daughter to be somewhat expectant. "OK. This part is a bit difficult to believe..."

" _This_ part?" he said with a skeptical expression, making not only both reptiles laugh, but Taylor as well. He smiled a little. "Trust me, from where I'm sitting, _all_ of this is hard to believe, although I do. I'm not sure everyone would."

The sound of shouting from outside the room made everyone look at the door. It passed down the corridor and faded. Saurial shook her head then turned back to him. "Ignore that, they're just having trouble with some of the staff."

"I'm surprised that no one has come looking for us," Danny put in, frowning. "If only for a witness statement or something."

"We made sure we wouldn't be interrupted." Saurial looked up again as the sound of a foam gun, which he recognized from the news, came from fairly close. "This is annoying though. Let's do this somewhere quieter."

"Where?" he queried.

"Your house would be the obvious place," Raptaur said thoughtfully. Her sister nodded.

"Yep, I think so."

"How do we get there past all the PRT and cops?" he asked.

"Remember how I brought you here?" Raptaur smiled. Danny nodded after a second, the infodump he'd received over the last hour had rather driven that weird experience from his mind. But now he recalled that the huge lizard could apparently teleport or something. "Same thing. OK, both of you stand up," she went on, motioning to him and Taylor. They exchanged a look then did as requested. "Saurial will take Taylor, you come with me." Raptaur stood as well and padded over, moving appallingly quietly for such a huge being, and put her hand on his shoulder, while Saurial did the same to Taylor.

"Hey, what about..." he got as far as saying before the world disappeared again for a time he couldn't properly work out. "...my truck?" he finished rather lamely as his living room resolved around them.

"I can take you back no problem," she told him with a smile, letting go and moving away. Saurial and Taylor appeared a moment later, his daughter looking startled.

"That… what the hell was _that?_ " she said in shock. Then she looked hard at Saurial who was definitely smirking. "Teleporting _too?_ Holy crap, you are total _bullshit_."

"Oddly enough you're not the first one to tell me that," the lizard-like girl laughed.

" _That_ doesn't surprise me even a little," Taylor sighed. "After only an hour and a half of knowing you."

Bowing slightly, Saurial looked very amused. "But you're neither bored or as upset as you were, right?"

"No," his daughter admitted with a small smile. "Your therapy methods are fucking bizarre though."

"We have our own style."

"If you can call it a _style_ and not a _disorder._ "

Saurial laughed, as did Raptaur. "Excellent. Glad to see there's some fire in there even after all this shit," the reptilian cape snickered. "Well, I suppose if we all sit down we can tell you some stuff about us now."

Danny sat on the sofa, Taylor doing the same next to him. Putting his arm over her shoulder like they used to do when watching TV in better times, he wished momentarily that his other arm was draped over an older version of her, then shook off his melancholy. This wasn't the time for it.

Saurial gazed at him for a few seconds, a weird little smile on her face. "This may come as a surprise," she began.

"After the last hour or so?" he snorted. "You'd have to work pretty hard to surprise me by this..."

She changed.

He gaped at the apparently human and ridiculously familiar figure that was now smiling at him. Beside him, Taylor was also staring, but not with as much shock.

There was silence for a time.

"OK," he allowed slowly when he recovered a little. "That'll do it."

Taylor started giggling. The _other_ Taylor did as well.

"Hello, Not-my-Dad," she said with great amusement. "I said it was a long story. It started long ago in a locker far, far away..."

The next hour made the _last_ hour seem positively prosaic by comparison, he thought afterwards.

* * *

 _"_ ** _What do you mean you can't find them?"_** Emily roared. On the screen, the camera on one of the PRT vehicles showed Armsmaster standing stiffly to attention, his mouth a straight line and his stupid beard looking like even _it_ was pissed.

" _We can't find Raptaur, Saurial, or the Hebert girl anywhere in the school,_ " he said in deliberately calm tones. " _We located an evidence bag in the girl's locker room that contained what appears to be Miss Hebert's soiled clothing with a note on it addressed to me, and there is ample evidence she was in there with at least one other person, presumably Saurial, but there is no sign of them. No one reports seeing them anywhere, or spotting them leaving the premises. I can only assume that they in fact teleported to another location. Without more data on how this is done, I cannot even hazard a range, so for the moment we have no idea where they are. Mr Hebert's vehicle is still present, I have a team searching it now for any evidence of use._ "

He frowned a little. " _Additionally there is some considerable confusion with a number of the personnel about the area that the locker room is in for a period of time earlier,_ " he added. " _It's possible some Stranger effect was used. The squad that was patrolling that area appears to have lost approximately ten minutes of time, which would correspond to when they were within roughly fifty feet of the locker room. I investigated and the only thing I can now find is a classroom on the other side of the corridor that has a broken lock on the door. But bearing in mind the state of decrepitude of the entire facility, without disassembling and examining the locking mechanism I can't guarantee that wasn't already in that state. There's no sign of them in the room itself._ "

She sighed heavily, massaging her neck and feeling a tension headache coming on. "So we've lost two of the three unknown capes that started this entire thing, along with the apparent victim and witness to the original event, _and_ her father. Who is, according to my information, someone who could easily cause us problems due to his status with the Dock Worker's Association and if they've told him anything about who was involved, is probably not well disposed towards us."

" _Unfortunately that does indeed appear to be the case, Director,_ " he replied fairly calmly.

"For god's sake, can this farce get any _worse?_ " she asked the world at large.

One of the PRT troopers standing close to Armsmaster in the background of the scene looked around, then tapped the cape on the shoulder. Pointing, he said, " _Sir? Some of New Wave just arrived on scene._ "

Emily groaned. Ask a stupid question, the universe was more than happy to give a stupid answer. She _knew_ that, why did she say _anything at all?  
_  
"Tell them to go away and leave this to us," she snapped viciously. "I don't want those lunatics getting involved. I still remember the last time."

The trooper nodded, about faced, and marched off. Moments later she could faintly hear an argument start. Armsmaster glanced over in the relevant direction, shook his head, and returned his attention to the screen on the open side of the operations vehicle at the school.

" _What do you wish us to do about this, Director? Without knowing their location, we can't interview the Hebert girl, or talk to either Raptaur or Saurial. Or, for that matter, easily move any of the three girls from their current position without bringing in some specialist lifting equipment. I can arrange that, but it will take..._ "

She waved this off, thinking for a moment. "I don't want those three little idiots on scene any longer than necessary. You still have eyes on Metis, correct?"

He looked around, then back. " _Affirmative. She's still standing near the door to the school. I believe she is playing_ ** _Angry Birds_** _now, based on the sounds._ "

"Jesus," Emily muttered under her breath, wondering exactly where she'd gone wrong in her life. "Go and ask her if she knows where her friends have gone, and when they're going to come back. _Politely_. Point out that we need to talk to everyone involved, especially Miss Hebert. And ask her if she can remove the restraints Saurial left."

" _As you wish, Director. And if she can't?_ "

"Just… do whatever you need to do to get Hess and her friends out of there. Get witness statements from anyone who saw anything too. The longer this goes on the worse the news coverage will get. They're already saying some excessively ill-informed things as it is. At this rate, I'm going to have an angry Chief Director shouting at me sooner or later."

He winced a little. Costa-Brown was known to be somewhat short tempered when things didn't go according to plan, and this was about as far from something that could be called ' _going to plan'_ as anything she could easily think of in recent years. At least no one was shooting at anyone else yet.

" _Yes, Director. I will keep you informed_."

She nodded curtly then went back to studying the various rumors and videos popping up online at a ferocious rate. It had spread far beyond the local PHO forums by now, and was attracting inane responses and unwelcome attention from many different places.

Sighing a little, she decided that she didn't like lizards, and kept working, making notes as she went. Perhaps she could drown the Chief Director in information when she called?

* * *

Thomas leaned back in his chair, thinking hard. With one hand he scrolled the mouse wheel under his index finger, stopping every now and then to read a few lines. He clicked on a link to a video file and watched it with interest. "Fascinating," he murmured to himself. "I wonder where _you_ three came from?"

There were plenty of theories, if you could dignify them with that term, all over the internet, but he thought none of them likely and most ludicrous. Obviously the lizards weren't demons, or aliens, or experiments by the government. They were clearly either the results of a very skilled Biotinker or a team of Parahumans who had formed to exploit a theme, possibly being Case 53s. He thought the latter explanation more likely. And they had some truly intriguing powers from the evidence so far shown.

He could use that.

' _I can't directly use_ ** _them_ ' **he thought, ' _but I think I can_ ** _indirectly_** _use them. They're already taking the attention of the PRT impressively well. A little careful manipulation of the situation might pay dividends..._ '

Putting his power to work, he started up a second timeline and in that one ordered two squads of his best mercenaries to infiltrate the school and attempt to provoke the lizard left outside into action. He frowned as he suddenly found himself getting weird results, which ultimately made him end the timeline with a gasp of pain. "What the hell was _that?_ " he said out loud, never having encountered anything like it before.

Determinedly he tried again, with the same result. Experimenting for some time, he quickly discovered that his second timeline invariably went peculiar as soon as his men got too close to the damn lizard. Each time it ended oddly, sometimes in a brilliant violet flash, most of the time in what he could only describe as a confused void. Which made no sense, but it was happening.

' _Got to be some form of anti-Thinker defense_ ,' he mused, seriously envious. ' _Possibly a Tinker device. I've heard of similar things although much more limited. I could definitely use_ ** _that..._** "

After some more thought, he picked up a cellphone and hit a speed dial combination. On the third ring it was answered by a cheerful female voice.

" _Yo, Boss, how nice to hear from you again! How can I help you today?_ "

He sighed inaudibly. That damn girl was a pain in the ass when she was in one of her good moods, which he was nearly certain she did to annoy him in a passive-aggressive way. He made sure never to underestimate her, because she was ambitious, smart, and dangerous. On the other hand he had her in the palm of his hand, so as long as he didn't screw up, she was one of his most useful assets.

"You've heard about the situation at Winslow?" he more stated than asked. He was certain she had, since she had an insatiable appetite for information and was probably the nosiest person he'd ever met.

" _Yeah, I have. Weird, isn't it? Lizards? Who'd have thought_ ** _that_** _would happen?_ " she replied, still sounding annoyingly chirpy.

"Look into it. I want to know what happens if I arrange an intervention."

" _Sure thing, Boss. I have to warn you, I've already tried a couple of things and I'm getting some odd results. But I'll give it a shot. Hold on._ "

Thomas waited impatiently. He could hear her mumbling to herself, and some typing in the background. " _Hmm. OK, yeah, that's the password, so I log into here, and… great, feed from the PRT truck. Let's see..._ " The mumbling descended into inaudibility but continued for another ten seconds.

Then it went quiet.

He heard a thump.

After another thirty second, his patience snapped. "Tattletale! Report!"

There was no answer.

"Are you still there?" Still, he got no reply. Fuming, he pulled the phone from his ear and looked at it, checking it was still connected, then replaced it. "TATTLETALE!" he shouted.

Eventually, he heard a groan, and some shuffling sounds. Listening intently he tried to work out what was going on. The odd noises went on for ten or fifteen seconds, before there was the sound of someone vomiting.

"Talk to me, Tattletale," he commanded. "What happened?"

Her voice was weak and shaky when she finally replied, none of her normal annoying insouciance present. " _Boss?_ "

"Yes. What _happened_ , Tattletale?"

" _I have no fucking idea. But I don't think you want to mess with those lizards. My power basically just had an aneurysm, and I'm not entirely convinced I_ ** _didn't._** _You wouldn't_ ** _believe_** _what my head feels like right now_." She groaned again and despite himself he winced at the pain in her voice.

He pulled the phone from his ear again and looked thoughtfully at it. Apparently this anti-Thinker effect or device was more effective than he'd realized. Tattletale, despite her annoying independence, was one of the more powerful Thinkers he'd come across. Which was, of course, why she was ' _working_ ' for him in the first place…

Putting the phone to his ear he asked, "Are you able to try again?"

" _NO!_ " she yelped, then moaned in agony. More quietly, she added, " _No, I can't go through that again. I honestly think it might kill me_."

"Did you get _anything_ useful?"

" _Just teeth_."

He sat there for a moment or two, wondering if she really _had_ sustained brain damage.

"Teeth?"

" _Lots and lots of Teeth_." He could hear the capital letter. " _Big ones. Smiling._ "

"I was under the impression that you didn't get visual data," he said carefully.

" _So was I,_ " she replied, sounding upset.

Neither one spoke for a few seconds, then he hung up without ceremony.

' _Perhaps I should evaluate the situation for a little longer before taking action_ ,' he thought a little uneasily. ' _There's no sense rushing things. Cautious steps are required._ '

It would be a useful thing if he could get the Protectorate to look the other way for a while, but he wasn't going to risk his own skin in the process. His plans could wait. Calvert went back to studying the unfolding situation half-way across the city but couldn't help wondering what Tattletale had meant about Teeth.

* * *

Lisa Wilbourn gently held her head until it didn't feel like she was in danger of dropping it, moaning in pain the entire time, then very carefully got up from the floor, headed into her bathroom, and rummaged in the medicine cabinet for her most powerful painkillers. Taking just under a dangerous dose, she swallowed them with half a glass of water, then staggered into her bedroom and flopped on the bed, suppressing a yelp of agony in the process. A couple of minutes later the drugs hit her system and she passed out with a sense of enormous relief.

She dreamed about teeth.

* * *

Max watched the video with care, pausing it a couple of times. Then he moved on to the next one, and the next. When he'd gone through a dozen of them and felt he had a fairly good handle on the current situation at Winslow, he started reading PHO, which he normally avoided due to the rampant idiocy so prevalent there.

Stopping on one post, he re-read it, then scrolled up a page and watched the video linked from another one. Steepling his hands with his elbows on the armrests of his chair, he pondered the screen for some time, before looking up at the two men sitting opposite his desk waiting.

"Interesting," he said.

"Useful?"

"Possibly." Spinning the chair with a foot to turn to the window he looked out at Brockton Bay, the cold and sunny day of early January showing caps of snow on most of the buildings visible. In the bay he could see the dark water slowly rolling under the wind. "' _Ward Bullies Schoolmate_ ' is a somewhat shocking headline, but otherwise prosaic. Essentially useless for our purposes except for the momentary shock value." He considered the view for a moment more then turned back, regarding his underlings.

"But… ' _Black Youth Bullies White Girl, Attempts Murder In School._ ' _That_ would fly in the right circles. The fact that she's a Ward as well merely adds to it. ' _PRT Cannot Control Their Child Soldiers_ ' would certainly worry a lot of people. We could build on that."

One of the men, Krieg, nodded thoughtfully. "We can't go after the girl directly and openly. If we attack a Ward we will lose too much to risk it."

"True," Max, also known as Kaiser, mused. "On the other hand, we have a name. Finding an address wouldn't be hard. And accidents happen."

The other man pushed a folded piece of paper over the desk. Max took it with two fingers and opened it, looking at the words written there. "Good work, Victor. Excellent initiative."

Victor merely shrugged. "It seemed worth chasing up, just in case."

"Do you intend to make an example?" Krieg, or James to people who knew him, asked curiously.

"Not yet," Max replied, thinking and planning. "We will see how this pans out. There's no point jumping the gun too early. We need to strike at the right time to maximize chances of an outcome we could make use of. It may not even be possible this time. That said..." He considered the matter for a moment longer, then nodded. "I think we should position some people close to the school in case an opportunity arises to embarrass the PRT. The girl might make a break for it. She's undoubtedly in custody, but she also has a reputation as someone who's difficult to contain and determined. A cunning little animal, to be sure. If she manages to escape, well, it's not impossible that totally coincidentally someone of the _right_ sort could… intercept her."

"And completely by chance possibly sadly cause harm to the young lady?" Victor asked mildly. "Then apologize profusely, of course. Using the correct words to make it clear what happens to that sort in a manner that is impossible to prove?"

"An interesting idea, Victor, but no. It would be _far_ more helpful for our cause if, should such an eventuality come about, the people involved _handed her safely back to the PRT_..." He smiled slowly as the other two exchanged glances. "The PR opportunity would be pure gold. Yet another case of the PRT allowing a dangerous criminal to slip through their fingers, but this time, it's one of their own. And they get her back due to _our_ intervention."

James started chuckling. "Inspired. But it's a very long shot indeed. I would imagine that the PRT knows exactly how to disable any advantage possessed by their own capes. They'd be fools not to have contingency plans for exactly this scenario."

"Indeed they would, and you are almost certainly correct. Yet they do have a reputation of losing captive capes on a remarkably consistent basis," Max replied, shrugging. "It's not impossible that it could happen yet again. I expect Miss Hess is very reluctant to face her superiors right now."

"And, of course, it's also not impossible that exactly the right sort of assistance at a crucial moment could aid her escape should she be so inclined," Victor remarked with a small smile. "Without leaving evidence, of course."

"Quite." Max's smile was larger. "A long shot, I admit, but if it turns out to be possible we would be remiss not to seize the opportunity to not only severely embarrass the PRT but raise our own profile in the same operation."

"It's an interesting concept but how would we do it?" James asked.

"That depends on how she's restrained and transported." Max looked at him. "Probably in one of the standard PRT troop vehicles, I would imagine. They normally use those where the prisoner doesn't need special precautions, and if they can neutralize her abilities she's only a fifteen year old girl."

"All right. I agree, but it still doesn't answer the question."

"We would need some form of diversion at the right moment to allow someone to surreptitiously break her out without either the PRT _or_ Shadow Stalker realizing who did it," Victor said after they'd thought about it some more. Both other men looked at him. "Someone not connected with our cause, someone who wouldn't be thought of as helping us. Someone we could manipulate into a position that they attacked the PRT."

"And do you have someone in mind?" Max asked.

"Lung would be the obvious one," his subordinate replied immediately. "He's fairly predictable and easily enraged, so it shouldn't be too hard to wind him up and point him at the PRT. Simply annoying him enough to the point that he chased the annoyer who then led him at them would probably do it. No one is going to ignore an angry rage dragon when it's charging right at them, whether it's after them or not. While they're dealing with that, we get in and out, the girl runs, we grab her."

"And if they _don't_ stop Lung?" Kreig asked, an eyebrow up.

Max shrugged. "A number of PRT people die, which also helps us. And Lung gets the blame. Very few downsides."

The other man considered it, then nodded. "OK, I can see that. Still need a lot of things to line up properly if it's going to work and it's all predicated on them actually transporting the girl in a way we can assault. If they fly her out to the Rig with one of those VTOL transports any method to intercept it would be too obvious."

"It's a long shot, but there's no harm in planning for the opportunity should it arise," Max replied easily. "It might not. If it doesn't we can still use this entire incident one way or the other."

"All right. I agree." James looked at the screen of Max's computer, which was to one side of him and turned enough so that all three of them could see it. "What about those lizards? They're a completely unknown quantity."

"So far all they've done is stand around grinning at people and unnerving them," Max pointed out. "Sure, they look dangerous, and are clearly Brutes at least, but other than that they don't appear to be particularly combative. There's a chance they'll just retreat."

"Or attack," Victor pointed out. "An unknown Parahuman is by definition dangerous."

"Even so, there's only one of them right now. The information on that stupid forum says that the other two have vanished and the PRT is running around in circles looking for them." Max gestured dismissively at the screen and the forum window that was open on it. "Presumably they're around somewhere, but as long as they don't turn up for five minutes or so, that would give us a window to work in."

"Another variable," James pointed out.

"We lose nothing setting things up. If we see a moment, we seize it. If not, we back off and no one knows."

They all looked at the screen for a second, then Victor looked at James, who shrugged. "OK. We'll set things up like you want. Rune, Crusader, and me near the school. Victor works on getting Lung in play if needed."

"Good." Both men stood. "One last thing. Don't risk running Lung into the school itself." Max looked seriously at them. "We're not monsters and can't be seen as such. I don't want a few hundred dead children even if half of them are the wrong type. The optics of that sort of thing are bad, leaving aside the fallout should anyone ever connect us to it."

"Lung would take the blame and get a kill order on him, which would solve a number of issues," James responded. Max just looked at him. "Fine. We won't move if the school is at risk."

Both of them left his office and he went back to poking around on the web, wondering where all the lizards _had_ come from.

And where two of them had gone.

* * *

Kenta clicked play on the video again, watching with interest. When it finished he chuckled. The grin and the insouciant game playing was highly amusing. That reptilian creature clearly knew full well that she was causing the PRT to get quietly worried and wasn't even _trying_ to prevent it. She had style.

Shaking his head with mild respect, he poked another icon on the tablet and resumed his interrupted game of Candy Crush, concentrating on beating his high score. Lizards or no lizards, he had more important things to do.

Oni Lee watched his boss for a minute or so, then turned and left. He'd done his duty and told the other man what the latest news was, so he was free to do something else.

He rather fancied a cup of tea.

* * *

"OK. Stop." Danny held up a hand. The other one was massaging his eyes. "Let me get this straight." Lowering both hands, he stared at the girl sitting on the chair across from him, the one that looked exactly like a version of his daughter at perhaps seventeen or eighteen. Assuming his daughter had a reptilian tail, which had definitely taken him by surprise when he'd somehow suddenly noticed something that had apparently been there all along.

She was watching him with the same faint smile she seemed to wear most of the time.

After a moment, he turned his head a little and looked at the _other_ girl that looked exactly like the first one, complete with enigmatic smile.

 _Then_ he looked at _his_ Taylor, who was looking between both of the copies of herself with an expression of befuddlement and interest.

Going back to the two new girls, he pointed. "You are the daughter of a version of myself and Annette from a sort of parallel world, only not quite." She nodded. "And a half demon." She nodded again. "Who can turn into practically any sort of vaguely reptilian form she can invent." She nodded yet again, the smile fractionally wider. "And who is clearly a troll of the first water." Another nod, and a considerably wider smile. "Jesus. Annette would have _loved_ you," he mumbled.

Then he looked at the other copy of her. "And _you_ are a full demon, who is actually part of _her_ , but somehow manages to manifest as a separate being at times. Or as two versions of the same one. Or she does that last part if she wants." The second girl nodded, her own smile subtly different, as was the body language. He'd picked up on that pretty fast, being experienced at reading people, but the way it seemed to move between them almost at random was disconcerting.

 **"Essentially correct, Danny,"** the ' _demon_ ' replied in a voice that was exactly the same as the other ' _Taylor_ ' but at the same time quite different. This part was the most disconcerting thing of the whole bizarre experience. "Very concisely put."

"And the pair of you have a hobby of wandering around the Multiverse causing confusion wherever you end up, mostly just because you can?"

"I wouldn't call it a _hobby_ as such," the other girl smiled. "We like exploring, true, and it's fun meeting new people, but it's not that structured at the moment. We're just experimenting with different things. We've been to some really weird places too. At the moment we've been poking around in one form of alternate versions of our world, and for some weird reason there does seem to be a fairly consistent outcome which is that we have bumped into versions of our family more often than you'd expect. One of my friends suggested that we're accidentally following the Hebert Variable as he put it. I'm not sure that's even a thing, but there's basically an infinite number of possible variables to change, so it _might_ be a thing. You wouldn't believe how complicated the Multiverse really is."

She indicated her double. "Even Varga doesn't know, and he knows everything."

 **"Hardly, Brain,"** the alleged demon responded with a grin. **"There are _many_ things I have no knowledge of at all. But I will admit that over my lifetime I have collected a very large store of data on a remarkable number of topics. Even so, this form of exploration is as fascinating to me as it is to the rest of you."  
**  
Danny stared at them, then closed his eyes. "This day has turned out very oddly," he sighed. Opening them again, he asked, "And you somehow managed to make your entire world think that you were a whole family of _alien lizards?_ "

 _His_ Taylor added, "Then actually _created it?_ By _accident?"_ She sounded completely incredulous, and slightly envious, which made him look askance at her for a moment.

"Hmm… Sort of. It's complicated," the ' _human_ ' Taylor-copy said with a laugh. "It seems to have worked out, though. We fixed a lot of things and learned a lot in the process."

"Somehow I get the impression that ' _it's complicated_ ,' is only the tip of the iceberg where _you_ two are concerned," Danny sighed. She shrugged.

After a moment, he shook his head. "Look, no disrespect intended, but can you go back to being Saurial and Raptaur? Looking at two extra copies of my own daughter is starting to give me a headache."

"Sure," Taylor-copy-1 said, turning into Saurial in the process without any sign of effort. Her duplicate stood up and turned into Raptaur, who proceeded to lie down on the floor.

"That's still unbelievable to watch," his daughter said admiringly. She seemed to have entirely gotten over her earlier trauma from that disgusting locker incident and was apparently finding this entire bizarre experience quite interesting. He was finding it peculiar to the point of wanting a beer. Two beers. He thought about that for a moment. _Many_ beers.

Deciding to think of them only by their ' _Family_ ' names, because it made his head ache less, he just stared at them for a while. In the end he asked, "So now what? Obviously you're not going to stick around indefinitely." He thought, then added a little nervously, "Are you?"

"No, don't worry, we have other things to do, so we won't be here _too_ long," ' _Saurial_ ' smiled. "We'll be out of your hair soon enough. But when I realized where I was I was really angry and I want to make sure that Taylor is OK before we go." She looked at his daughter sympathetically. "I've met several versions of myself, not all of whom had the same abilities, but I've never ended up doing that so close to the Trigger point. If I'd been that little bit quicker I could have spared you this. I'm sorry about that."

"It's not your fault," Taylor replied quietly. "You helped me a lot, more than anyone else has for years." She glanced a little guiltily at him, but he just put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it for a second. She was right, after all. "From what you said it was pretty much an accident you ended up this close in the first place. You sure didn't shove me in that locker, so I'm not mad. I'm grateful, in fact."

"Good to know, although I'll still feel guilty about it for a while," Saurial responded. "I'll have some stuff for you before we leave that might help, too. But before that, let's double-check that your power really is what I think it is, then assuming that's true, I can explain how it works." She smiled. "It seems to be the most common one we get, based on a fairly small sample."

"How do we do that?" Taylor asked with interest.

"I need to turn down the blocking effect of the biowidget I used," the lizard girl explained, standing up and coming over next to her as Danny watched, somewhat concerned. "Here, tip your head forward a little. Hold your hair like this… Great, now just stay still. Don't worry, this shouldn't hurt, but it might be disorientating to start with." She put her hand on the back of Taylor's neck and did something.

His daughter gasped and stiffened while he looked on in alarm. Before he could say anything, she relaxed again. "Oh, my god, it's full of bugs," Taylor mumbled.

Saurial snickered. "Yep. Insect control. I thought so, that brain activity is pretty distinctive. How many can you feel?"

"One thousand six hundred and seventy three," Taylor said without hesitation. "Mostly spiders in the walls, attic, and basement."

Danny looked around uneasily. That sounded… horrifying.

"About what I'd expect," Saurial nodded. "And what sort of range?"

"Um… maybe fifty feet?"

"Can you see anything? Or only feel them, hear them, that sort of thing?"

"Mostly feel them, but there's sounds as well. I can't work them out very well. No vision, or nothing that looks like it."

"Good. I've got the sensitivity turned down, so to speak. I'll leave it there for now. It should be enough to let me explain it."

"How the hell can you even _do_ that?" Danny asked, incredulous. "I didn't think anyone understood powers anywhere near that well, never mind being able to control them."

Saurial moved back to sit on the sofa and turned to him, while Taylor kept peering around the room with an expression of wonder on her face. "It took a _lot_ of research, believe me. The entire mechanism behind Parahuman abilities was more or less designed to be hidden. I can explain it in nauseating detail if you want but even a decent overview would take close to an hour if you want the whole thing. But in a nutshell and leaving out a hell of a lot of detail, there are things that are called Agents, or Shards, or Processors, depending on who you talk to. They're basically giant organic computers which each have a specialty."

She indicated Taylor, who was now staring fixedly out the living room door. "They find a human that seems to fit their parameters as a possible host, and connect to their brain. That's where the Corona Pollentia comes from, it's one end of a link that terminates at the Shard at the other end. The mechanism is way too complicated to explain without a lot of math. It will sit there and wait until the host gets into a position where it meets the criteria for a Trigger event, which generally is an extremely high-stress and possibly fatal experience, then uses various environmental and host specific variables to tailor the power set it can provide to meet the particular requirements of that host. Unfortunately, what a Shard considers ' _requirements_ ' is often a little weird by human terms. And once it's active, that's signified by the appearance of the Gemma."

 **"The Shard that seems to have a remarkable affinity for Heberts is capable of a hugely massive multitasking operation and usually manifests as some variant of Master power,"** Raptaur continued, although this time her speech patterns were those of the self-professed ' _demon_.' **"Arthropod control is one it's very well suited for and often picks, based on a fairly limited number of samples. The level of concurrency is remarkable. Normally the range is restricted to approximately a thousand yards or so, but that can encompass literally millions of individual creatures. All of them independently and completely controllable with precision."**

"How many insects could there possibly be in a… what, two thousand yard diameter area?" Danny wondered out loud.

Both of the currently reptilian visitors looked amused. "You probably don't really want an answer to that," Saurial replied. "Let's leave it at ' _Lots and lots and lots_.' Most people haven't got the faintest idea how many little creepy-crawlies are around them or even on them just about all the time. They'd hide under the covers if they did..."

"That's a mental image I could have done without," he said faintly when he'd thought it over. She smirked a little.

"It's worse if you're phobic about that sort of thing."

"I can imagine. And I wish I couldn't"

"Wow," Taylor said quietly. He looked at her, then followed her eyes before recoiling a little. There were about two hundred spiders marching across the floor towards her, all of them in perfect formation like a teeny little army with far too many legs. As he watched, dumbfounded, the entire formation did a right turn and kept going, as neatly as any military formation he'd ever seen.

Only _way_ more disturbing.

As he gaped, they about faced and started marching in interleaving patterns. All that was missing was a tiny brass band.

"Holy shit," he whispered.

"Not bad for a first attempt," Saurial said approvingly. "Powers usually come with a sort of built-in understanding but it often takes some practice to use them properly."

"It's so cool," Taylor smiled. A small squadron of house flies zoomed in from the hallway and started doing aerobatics over the marching spiders. She was showing no signs of effort at all, which was amazing to him.

"There are all sorts of interesting tricks you can do when you work them out," Saurial said. "I've got a list of the things the first insect controller Taylor we met figured out. I'll give you a copy, but I'd suggest experimenting too. You might come up with something new."

She looked back to Danny. "Anyway, one of our people is an incredibly good version of what you'd probably think of as a Biotinker, although she's a hell of a lot more than that. She's designed all sorts of cool things that are really useful. One of them is a power regulator. It doesn't work with all powers although it does with most of them, and it's not safe to use indefinitely for reasons that are too complex to go into right now. But it's really useful on new Triggers to help them ease into their powers if those powers can cause issues, like Taylor's could. I used it to pretty much shut her power down for a while at the school since otherwise she'd have had all sorts of problems from all the unexpected sensory input." She shrugged. "It's happened before and apparently isn't much fun."

He thought it over and slowly nodded. It made a degree of sense if he was understanding the whole thing properly, which he wouldn't want to guarantee he was.

"And there's no way to shut her powers down permanently?" he asked.

Saurial sighed. "Yes, but you don't want it done. There's a fairly high risk of brain damage in a large number of cases, which normally outweighs the benefits unless the power in question is particularly dangerous or self-damaging. In Taylor's case it shouldn't cause too much in the way of side-effects, and if anything could help her emotional stability. Some powers can have some nasty ramifications. Oni Lee is a good example. But in his case it's too late to help anyway. Taylor's power is safe enough for her."

"It's really neat, too," his daughter said happily. "I guess it's not the sort of thing that will let me be a good hero, but..."

 **"You'd be surprised,"** Raptaur chuckled. **"Most people are.** "

"I can think of some possibilities," Danny commented. "Reconnaissance, that sort of thing."

 **"That's one route, yes. There are a lot more."**

"So what do we do next?" he asked after watching his daughter play with her arachnid army for a while. He wasn't particularly worried by spiders, but that number of the things was disconcerting. Especially as they had apparently been here all along. "She's at risk just from being a Parahuman as far as I understand it. And I'm not too keen on her joining the Wards if the PRT couldn't even control that little psycho."

"To be fair, assuming it went the same way here as on our world, only a couple of people actually realized what was going on," Saurial said. "The Director had no idea, neither did Armsmaster or the rest of the Wards. Sophia was fairly careful to hide it from them. The school, on the other hand… They're in it up to their necks, thanks to Blackwell."

Danny fumed again. "I'd like to strangle that damn woman."

 **"I suspect the PRT have beaten you to it,"** Raptaur told him with a smile. **"They will be rather annoyed that she was colluding with a corrupt PRT officer to sweep Sophia's misdeeds under the carpet for various reasons. But it does give you a considerable amount of leverage with them if you handle things correctly."**

He thought about it and smiled slowly and nastily. "Yes, I can see what you mean..."

 **"I expected as much."**

A very high pitched beeping sound came from somewhere, making him look around in puzzlement. "Whoops, sorry, I'd better check that," Saurial apologized, pulling a sort of cellphone out of a pouch on her belt, then looking at it. "Metis says the PRT is getting a little worked up. We're going to have to go and talk to them, I guess." She tapped the screen with her talon tips for a few seconds very quickly, then put the thing away. "It might be best to have a word with them first before we bring you guys into things. If this Director is like our one, she's going to want to shout for a while and I don't want your temper to end up with you punching her in the eye."

Danny rather reluctantly smiled. "I'd never hit a woman," he said. "I don't actually hit anyone, for that matter. Just swear a lot."

"Trust me, you'd want to hit _her_ ," Saurial chuckled. "She has a way with words that is… provocative. Although it wouldn't be a good idea, she's also _very_ highly trained and would probably kick your ass, no matter what her physical condition."

He shrugged. "If you think that's best. I have no objection to it, but sooner or later I want to ask them some questions of my own. Quite a lot of them."

 **"Understandable,"** Raptaur nodded. **"That can easily be arranged, and I have no doubt they feel likewise. Let us deal with things for now, though. Taylor, you should rest, since you've been through an unpleasant ordeal and even healing you won't fix the mental tiredness. I'd suggest having a small meal, then just relaxing for a couple of hours. Experiment with your power but don't overdo it."**

"And start reading this," Saurial added, handing over a booklet roughly the size of a paperback and perhaps a quarter of an inch thick. It had an image on the front that Danny gaped at, as did his daughter, since it seemed to not only _not_ be two dimensional, but to exceed _three_ dimensions in a disturbing way.

He looked away before he could see if it had a title, since the image was so damned weird to look at.

Taylor took it, squinted at it for a moment, then looked up with a curious expression. "Um, thanks?"

"No problem. We'll be back in a while. And we'll make sure no one disturbs you." Saurial produced a small card out of nothing and gave it to him. "That's got a number you can reach me on if you need me before we come back."

He looked at it.

 **Saurial**

 **Inter-Reality Troll**

 **BBFO Representative**

 ** _"We'll fix it"  
_  
(555) 314 1592 65359**

After a moment spent blankly staring at the words, he looked back at her.

"There are too many digits."

"It'll work, don't worry." She grinned. "See you soon."

Seconds later he was alone with his daughter and a few hundred of her new friends, which were now doing some bizarre form of arachnid cheer leading competition.

"She seems nice," Taylor said eventually. "Bit peculiar, though. I wonder if she hit her head as a child?" He looked at her, then sighed heavily, leaning back on the sofa and closing his eyes, while wondering what the hell had just happened.

She curiously began flipping through the book she'd received. "Hey," she said in surprise. "This thing has _way_ too many pages..."

Opening them he watched as she kept turning and turning, finally reaching the end of the thin book. "Page two thousand, three hundred and sixty-eight?" she read in shock. "Holy crap."

"What's it about?" he asked, now feeling a little concerned. She turned back to the first page and held it up. At least this was less disturbing than the cover.

 **"Your Shard and You: A Practical Guide to Parahuman Abilities,"** he read numbly. Under that was a subtitle in a cheerful font. **_"Care and feeding of your new superpower."_**

"Oh, for god's sake," Danny sighed. Even their helpful advice was also trolling people.

Taylor was reading the first page, snickering under her breath, while her spider army began a calisthenics routine that looked somewhat exhausting. He watched for a few more seconds, then got up to make some lunch.


	4. Argument

Vicky stared at her phone in astonishment. "Holy shit," she mumbled to herself as she watched the video stream on the small screen. "Hey, guys, have you _seen_ what's going on at Winslow?"

A number of other students in the lunch room were also apparently watching the same thing she was judging by the comments she could hear coming from around the place, and when she looked up more and more were tapping on phones. Lunchtime was the only time of day when the phone blocking system was turned off, and even then it didn't allow phone calls, only internet access. So unless a student went outside the building, which was severely frowned upon without permission, the rest of the time they had little contact with the outside world.

All in the name of encouraging concentrating on school work, of course, but it was _really_ irritating.

The sole exception was the Ward's PRT-issued phones, and _they_ were told not to use the things except in genuine emergencies, with the penalty of getting shouted at by a lot of people in the PRT if they ignored that.

And possibly outing themselves, of course, which was another good reason to avoid it.

Beside her, Dean was looking over her shoulder at the screen, his eyes wide. Carlos had looked as well then whipped out his own civilian phone, at which he, Dennis, and Chris were now staring. On her other side a couple of her friends were also craning their necks to see.

"What the fuck is _that_ thing _?_ " Jennifer, one of those friends, squeaked in horror.

"Looks like a fucking dinosaur in armor," Vicky replied, only half-listening. "Amy. Are you seeing this?"

Not getting a response, after a couple of seconds she looked across the table at her sister, who turned out to be carefully marking her place in the book she'd been reading, a small frown on her face. "God, sis, take some interest in other things than books for once, will you?" the blonde said with asperity.

Her adoptive sister emitted a tiny sigh, putting the book down on the table. "I have better things to do than watch stupid PHO videos," she grumbled. "It's probably fake anyway. That one that got you all worked up last week was entirely fictional, you remember? Didn't stop you all panicking."

Several people looked mildly embarrassed. Vicky simply turned her phone to face her sister, who glanced at it, then looked more closely. "Although, I have to admit, if that's a fake, it's _really_ well done," the brunette said moments later, her expression quizzical. "The movements are spot on."

"It's not a fake, Amy," Carlos put in, holding up his own phone. "I've got confirmation from the BBPD that there is an incident at Winslow involving one or more unknown Parahumans. So far peacefully, they say. The PRT isn't confirming it, but they're not denying it either."

"Interesting..." Amy produced her own phone, one that was several generations behind Vicky's top of the line one, and poked around on it for a while. Vicky turned her phone back to where she could see it, allowing the others gathered around to see again too.

"Look, there's a live stream from inside the school there," Jennifer pointed out, indicating one of the other links with a manicured fingernail. Vicky tapped on it, seeing it was apparently live rather than the recording from an hour and a half ago they'd been watching.

"That's a different lizard," she said after a few seconds. "Where did that huge one with four legs go?"

"It disappeared when some guy in a truck turned up," Chris said. He'd stopped watching the video on Carlos's phone and was rapidly scrolling through a PHO forum. "The guy went with it."

"' _Disappeared_ ' as in teleported or just wandered off?" Amy asked.

"Looks like teleported," he replied a moment later. "Or something weird like that. Just vanished, this guy says. No one seems to know where it went. Oh, and from what people are saying this all started _inside_ the school when _another_ one appeared out of nowhere and attacked three girls."

"Attacked them?" someone from the table behind said. "This guy here is saying three girls attacked someone _else_ and the lizard _saved_ her. Then told people to call the cops and her father and stuff."

"Something's really weird with this," Dennis commented. "Hey, play that one." Carlos tapped the relevant link. "Look, Beardmaster looks _really_ pissed, and confused at the same time," the red-head chuckled a few seconds later. "That big lizard sure seems angry, too."

"How can you tell?" Carlos asked. "I mean, with all those teeth and those glowing eyes, I'm having a hard time thinking that it _can_ look anything other than angry. Or possibly hungry."

"Maybe it ate that guy," yet another student said nervously. Everyone looked at him, the now quite large group falling silent for a second or two.

"Christ, don't say things like that, Harry," the girl next to him moaned. "It makes me feel sick."

"Who was that guy anyway?" Chris asked.

"Maybe that girl's father?" Michaela, Vicky's other friend, suggested. "If what Sue said is right."

"So where is he? And the girl? If she exists at all. And where did those first two lizards go?" Dennis looked puzzled. "And for that matter, where the hell did three giant lizards come from in the _first_ place?" He looked around, scanning the faces of the other students. "Anyone ever heard of reptilian capes?"

"There's Newter..."

He shook his head at the tentative comment from Jennifer. "He's not a lizard. Or at least he's not all scaly, he's just orange. With a tail."

"Um… Yeah, guess so. No, then, I've never heard of a lizard cape."

"Nope."

"Me either."

"I heard something about one in Texas somewhere… I think." Harry looked unsure as people turned to him.

"Maybe?" he added.

"People here are saying that this big one had a weird accent, though," Amy said thoughtfully. "And a Texan accent isn't _quite_ weird enough that people would remark on it."

"You haven't met some of the Texans _I_ have," Carlos muttered, not looking away from his phone. She smirked a little at the remark and kept poking her own device.

"I'm pretty sure that everyone knows the difference between _Lizard_ and _Texan_ , Carlos," the girl said dryly. "No one has claimed the thing talks like a cowboy. And I'm pretty sure that would be noteworthy."

"Fair enough." He nodded seriously. "It's not wearing a stetson either. Can't be a Texan then." Amy smiled again a little at the comment and kept reading what she was looking at.

"Hey!" Vicky looked more closely at her phone. "Aunt Sarah just turned up, with Uncle Neil and Crystal too."

"Really?" Her sister looked over, appearing slightly puzzled. "Why? Winslow is miles from home. Why would they get involved? Aren't the PRT handling it?"

Vicky snorted, which made Carlos give her a sideways look. "The PRT? Handle something?"

"They're not incompetent, Vicky," he said mildly.

"No, but they're also not… How do I put this?" She frowned.

"Not always particularly interested in low-level problems?" Amy suggested with a dark smile. "Based on some incidents I can think of."

Snapping her fingers, Vicky pointed at the other girl. "Yeah. That."

"Bit unkind but I can't deny there's an element of truth to it," Dean sighed. He'd been watching the entire time with a very odd expression on his face. Vicky smiled a little at him. She knew he didn't agree with some of the policies the PRT used, based on complaints he'd made privately to her about the Wards. "On the other hand, this isn't really a low level problem, is it? The entire school is in lockdown and could be in danger from whoever these people are."

They all watched the various videos available for another few minutes. Vicky was somewhat irritated by the way the other New Wave people on site appeared to get into an argument with several of the PRT people, enough arm waving going on to make her think that the organization was being pushy. Her family only wanted to help.

Eventually she came to a decision, standing up abruptly. "Come on, Ames."

"What?" Her sister seemed startled.

"We need to go and back up the others," she stated firmly.

Amy gave her a hard look. "What on earth makes you think _that?_ " she demanded. "If they wanted us there, they'd have asked us. Well, you, probably." Vicky felt a little guilty as she knew _exactly_ what the other girl meant and didn't like it. "They sure don't need _me_. No one is injured, there's no fighting going on, everyone is just talking." She peered at the screen of the nearest phone currently showing a video. "Or shouting," she added with a shrug. "Not even at the lizards. That black one is watching them and looking smug when it's not playing games."

This part seemed to amuse her a little. Vicky had to admit it showed a certain amount of assured self-confidence on the part of the giant scaly creature.

"You never know, fighting could break out any time," Vicky insisted. "We should be there to help."

"Help _stop_ it or help _start_ it?" Dennis quipped, making her glare at him and Amy chuckle.

"He has a point."

"He's an idiot."

Dennis grinned at her.

"Just doing my part to keep things rolling along, Vicky."

Sighing, she ignored him and turned back to her sister. The more you interacted with the boy the worse he got, so it was safest to pretend he wasn't there when he got like this. "Come on, Ames, we should go and help," she wheedled.

"Help _how?_ " Amy looked very dubiously at her, then back at her phone. "Seems to me it's pretty much under control right now."

"But it might go bad at any moment," Vicky insisted, standing up and leaning over the table. "We need to be ready to provide backup. We're part of New Wave too, right?"

"And supposed to be getting back to class in..." Amy checked the time. "Eleven minutes."

Waving a hand, her sister responded, "Meh, it's a valid emergency. We can go and help. No one will mind." She put her phone away, walked around the table, heaved her protesting sister to her feet, and propelled her out the door of the lunch room. "See you guys later. Dean, tell the office we're helping with a Parahuman emergency, will you? Thanks, sweetie."

Amy was still swearing at her when they disappeared from view.

Everyone in the entire room stared after her.

Eventually Dennis said, his voice easily audible over the quiet, "Well, I can't see any way _that's_ going to go wrong..."

Dean sighed heavily and got up to go and mention to the school administration that his girlfriend was absent.

After he'd also left, everyone quickly went back to their phones, bringing up the live view of the situation at Winslow. Even the staff. 

* * *

"Babe, look at this."

Skidmark looked up rather woozily from his glass pipe, reeling from the hit he'd just taken. Man, this new shit was fucking _excellent_ , he thought muddily.

"Look at what, bitch?" he replied.

Squealer held up a tablet, the screen covered in scratches from where it had been used for cutting lines. He squinted at the foggy image, not entirely sure how much of the blurriness was the tablet and how much was him. "Cunting cock-gobblers," he exclaimed eruditely when his eyes focused on the thing displayed in the video playing there. "What the shit-balls is that motherfucker?"

"Some sort of new fucking cape, I think," Squealer said, taking a hit on her own pipe and handing him the tablet so she could wave a lighter under it again. He took the thing in a trembling hand and gazed at it.

"Ugly pissbag," he commented. Then propped the tablet up against a block of pure cocaine and sucked in another cloud of vaporized narcotic. "Scaly," he added with a giggle as he lay back on the stained sofa.

"Maybe we should go look," Squealer suggested. Popping another rock into her pipe, she inhaled. "Might have something useful we could lift."

"Yeah," he agreed. The room was spinning slowly counter-clockwise and gently throbbing. This new batch was _incredible_.

"Let's go fuck up a lizard," he went on in dreamy tones. Another lungful of smoke went in, then out. "Never fucked up a lizard before."

"Mmmmm." The woman next to him slowly slumped over onto the arm of the sofa, the pipe in her scarred hands dropping to the floor and shattering.

" _Good_ shit," he announced to the world at large, which then went away in a blur of colors that didn't strictly exist. 

* * *

****  
Looking over at Lady Photon who was arguing with a PRT lieutenant, her husband and daughter standing behind her and appearing curious, a little bored, and impatient too, Colin sighed. New Wave were, when they tried, quite efficient. Unfortunately a lot of the time they were also more than a little undisciplined and had a tendency to arrive at just the wrong moment. He was sure they meant well but some of their escapades in the past had only barely avoided becoming a disaster by more luck than anything else. And he personally didn't like relying on luck.

Good preparation and careful attention to detail was in his opinion far more reliable.

Still, there was no denying they had a powerful team and had certainly been responsible for taking down Marquis, even if that was via methods he personally felt were somewhat dubious. Still, one couldn't argue with success.

But here and now he really didn't think they were either required or desired. At least Glory Girl wasn't with them, which hopefully meant the somewhat less impulsive members that _were_ here could be reasoned with and persuaded to leave.

Not by him, though. He'd leave that to the PRT staff, since they were a lot better at talking to people. For reasons that escaped him, the last time he'd tried logically pointing out to the group that everyone would be far better served if they went home and left the hero work to the professionals, Brandish had started yelling at him, apparently becoming quite irate. It was puzzling, since he'd thought his argument was perfectly sensible and easy to understand.

He'd even produced a chart showing his figures. Any sensible person would have checked them, agreed with them, and gone away.

It was somewhat vexing.

This time he had no intention of talking to them at all if he could avoid it. Should Protectorate input be required to aid the PRT lieutenant, he was sure Hannah could help far better than he could. Right now, he had a lizard to talk to.

Approaching Metis, he saw her look up from her phone, which was of a model he didn't recognize at all from what he could see. He was sure she'd been aware of him the entire time he'd been heading towards her, since it was clear to him that her senses were almost certainly well above the human norm. He'd seen her smiling once or twice when someone said something that might, if he understood it correctly, be considered humorous, even if the comment was in a low voice and a hundred feet away from her.

Arriving at what he felt was a safe distance but within easy conversational range, he stopped. "May I have a word?" he asked a little stiffly, striving to present an appearance that would be considered polite.

"Certainly, Armsmaster," the large reptilian creature replied with a smile, her voice very deep and with the same accent Raptaur had possessed, but also very understandable. He became aware that almost everyone present was now watching them both, even the argument between the New Wave people and the lieutenant stopping. "How can I help you?"

"I was hoping you could tell me where your companions Raptaur and Saurial might currently be," he said, watching her closely. She didn't appear, as best he could tell, to take offense to the question. "We seem to have lost track of not only them, but both Mr Hebert and his daughter. It will be necessary to interview Miss Hebert at the bare minimum if we are to get to the truth of this current situation, and I would also like to talk to Saurial."

She nodded, still smiling. "Of course. I would imagine that you have questions for Raptaur as well."

"I do, yes. A considerable number of them." He relaxed a little since it didn't seem that she was going to become hostile, although her body language was quite alien. Not that he was particularly good with body language much of the time anyway…

"My cousins have taken the Heberts somewhere private to talk to them for a while," she told him. "There were quite a few things that needed to be discussed and they didn't think it was a good idea to do it in public. A lot of it is personal to the Heberts."

"I see," he replied after a moment's thought. That didn't sound implausible, although he was curious about what was being discussed and where they actually were. _And_ how all this had come up in the first place, of course. How had Saurial and her sister and cousin even known about the whole issue with Sophia to begin with? "You understand that we are concerned about this whole affair? There are a considerable number of irregularities about it to put it mildly."

Metis chuckled, the sound like a rumble. "I'm aware of that. We'll explain as much as we can when they come back. It's likely that they'll want to talk to you without the Heberts to begin with. And I expect they'll want some assurances before you _do_ talk to Taylor and her father. Considering who was involved..."

He sighed, frowning. "I am not pleased about that aspect at all," he said after a moment, which was a massive understatement. He was furious about it, but allowing anger to interfere with his job was inefficient and unprofessional. "The people involved will have a very large amount of explaining to do and will not enjoy either the experience or the results. I can assure you of that. The evidence so far is that Raptaur was completely accurate in her description of the crimes committed."

"Good, they'll be pleased about that," Metis nodded. "They'll be back fairly shortly. I'll let them know you'd like to talk sooner rather than later."

"Thank you, that is much appreciated." Looking at the school for a moment as he heard one of the PRT troopers call to another, then deciding it wasn't important, he turned back and added, "It would be also helpful if the accused perpetrators could be brought out of the school. We'll have to interview them separately and with them jointly restrained that is difficult to arrange, as is having them stuck in the middle of a crime scene." With a small frown, he went on, "The entire wing of the school will have to be closed for decontamination based on the hazmat team's results in any case which is another reason to move them."

Metis nodded understandingly.

"Can you remove their restraints?" he requested.

"I'm afraid that will require either Saurial or Raptaur," she told him. "Their branch of our family has the relevant ability, mine doesn't. We have other specialties."

"Ah. That's inconvenient." Colin was disappointed but didn't see any reason to complain. "I will have to arrange suitable mobile lifting equipment, which will..."

Metis raised a hand, stopping him. "I can't remove the restraints, but I can help you with that part easily enough," she said. "Assuming you have a suitably heavy duty vehicle to handle the weight?"

He examined her for several seconds, then pointed to the largest vehicle now present, a large six wheeled transport that had brought more personnel to deal with interviewing everyone that needed it. "That one is rated for twenty tons. Is that sufficient?"

"That'll do it," she nodded. "Come on, let's go get some stupid girls." Turning, she headed inside the building, putting her phone away in a compartment than opened in her armor en route. Taken a little by surprise, he looked at Hannah who had been keeping an eye on their discussion while talking to Ethan, motioned to the school, then followed her when his colleague waved back.

Metis was waiting for him at the foot of the staircase up to the next floor. "Probably best if you tell your people I'm coming in," she smiled. "Don't want people overreacting, do we?"

"That would be unhelpful," he agreed, going in front and preceding her towards the three captive students. She followed, so quietly he couldn't hear her footsteps, which was more than slightly impressive for someone so large and heavy. 

* * *

****  
Sarah watched over the PRT man's shoulder as Armsmaster followed the enormous black lizard in through the front door of Winslow. The thing was even more impressive in real life than she'd expected, looking strong enough to juggle cars. She had no idea if that was accurate or not but didn't discount it. It also seemed likely that it was very tough too, as the scales that covered were themselves covered by a seriously high-tech set of formfitting and color matched armor.

Armor that clearly hid a few surprises, based on the way that without any visible indication of how it was done an opening had appeared in it which the creature had put the device she'd been holding into. It seemed possible that there could be other things in there too, such as weapons.

Mind you, with talons and teeth like _that_ did it even _need_ weapons, she mused with a certain amount of worry.

Returning her attention to the lieutenant, she tried again. "I understand, Lieutenant Paxton. Yes, the current situation does indeed appear peaceful. But you can hardly deny that this is, at best, an extremely _unusual_ situation, peaceful or not, can you? There are at least three totally unknown Parahumans who have, by your own acknowledgment, arrived via methods that are _also_ unknown and basically taken over a school. That is… concerning… to put it lightly."

"Winslow is hardly a school," Crystal muttered from behind her. She gave her daughter a warning look over her shoulder, then went back to fixing the visibly nervous man in front of her with her best severe expression.

"And from what I know, you've now lost track of two of these people, and at least a couple of _other_ people including the victim of what appears to have been a highly unpleasant assault. I don't know the full details of what's going on, but there are enough oddities that I wouldn't consider it impossible for something unexpected to happen. After all, this entire scenario is unexpected." She motioned at the school. "There are still close to a thousand people, mostly children, in that building. What happens if these Parahumans have some ulterior motive that hasn't yet come to light? You might need the help we can provide."

The PRT man sighed slightly, glancing at Miss Militia who was standing talking to Assault about thirty feet away, obviously listening but as obviously not wanting to get involved unless there was no choice. Then he replied, "I understand your worries, Lady Photon, and we do appreciate the offer of help. But as you can see things are under control. There's no indication that the Parahumans in question have any desire to cause trouble. A crime was committed, there's no doubt of that, and the people involved were swiftly caught and restrained. From what I know the victim is safe and well, no one else was harmed, and with luck most of the students and staff will be able to leave as soon as we have finished recording the crime scene and collecting evidence."

He waved at the fairly significant number of people in uniforms swarming the entire area. By now there were at least a dozen PRT vehicles of various types, two different hazmat trucks, and seven BBPD cars too. The whole thing had become quite busy. "As you can see, we have more than enough people to handle things. There are four Protectorate members on hand, nearly sixty troopers, and enough confoam to practically bury the school in the stuff. There isn't really anything for New Wave to be concerned about. It's good of you to want to help out and I'm sure that in future there will be some situation where your aid will be very helpful. Knowing this city, I would be surprised if that _didn't_ happen to be honest."

He smiled a little and behind her Neil snickered. "Man's got a point," he said quietly.

Sarah had to admit he did. At least privately. But she'd promised her sister that she'd keep an eye on things and so far hadn't heard from her again. Looking at that reptile had send a shiver down her back and she was reluctant to simply leave, even if things were at the moment apparently going well.

Just in case.

With Parahuman involvement, a minor incident could turn into a major one before you could blink, as _everyone_ who lived in Brockton Bay was far too well aware. There were a hell of a lot of past incidents to show how easy it was to turn a minor drama into a major crisis with almost no warning.

Thinking for a moment, she eventually decided that she wasn't going to get anywhere by pushing too hard. Antagonizing the PRT seldom had much of an upside, even if at times it was difficult to resist when considering some of the things they'd dropped the ball on. But she couldn't point at anything here where it looked like it would go bad despite her misgivings.

"All right, Lieutenant, I understand where you're coming from. I don't totally agree, but I understand. How about this? We'll go over there, out of the way, and just watch." He opened his mouth and she raised her voice a little to override whatever objection he was about to come out with. "Only in case the worst does happen. You're probably right, and I do hope you are, that this will all resolve peacefully. But I'd be happier if I could keep an eye on things for a while longer." She smiled gently at him. "We'll stay well out of your way and not interfere."

He studied her, looked over to the position she'd indicated which was just inside the police barriers, then glanced at Miss Militia again, who looked back and nodded slightly. "All right. I would prefer that you go home, but you seem determined to be here, and I can't actually order you to leave. It's public property and that's outside the crime scene. If you want to stand around watching, go ahead. I doubt anything interesting will happen."

"With any luck you're right, Lieutenant Paxton," she replied, smiling again. "But I'd feel terrible if something bad happened which we could have helped with and we weren't here."

He nodded to her, then turned and walked over to talk to Miss Militia in low tones. Sarah watched him go before looking at her husband and daughter. "Think he's right, Sarah?" Neil asked quietly. "Sure, that thing looks dangerous as all hell, but it spent twenty minutes ignoring everyone and playing games on a phone, for god's sake! That didn't strike me as something someone who was intending to cause trouble would do."

"It was kind of funny, actually," Crystal put in with a grin. "Armsmaster seemed pretty confused."

"It could just have been what this Metis character _wanted_ us to think," Sarah said. Both the others looked at each other, then her.

"You've been talking to Carol too much, honey," Neil chuckled. "Some things are exactly what they look like. Don't get too paranoid or you'll be seeing devious plans everywhere."

"Yeah, Mom, it's not like there's a Bond villain sitting in an underground lair somewhere sending giant lizards out to stand around playing _Angry Birds_ at us," Crystal giggled. "Or if there _is_ , the world is even weirder than I thought it was."

Sarah stared at them, then sighed. "Come on, let's just go over there and wait. I need to call Carol and see if she's found out anything new. Something about this whole thing is wrong, but I can't work out why or what." She headed away from the place they'd landed, mulling over what she'd seen and heard.

"Does mom have a problem with lizards?" Crystal whispered to her father behind her. "I thought Metis looks sort of cool in an ' _I could eat your face off_ ' way."

Sarah grumbled to herself as her husband laughed, feeling underappreciated right at that moment. Her sister might be prone to seeing malfeasance where it wasn't always present but having seen this through her own eyes, she agreed with the other woman that _something_ weird was going on. Perhaps the PRT man had been correct and it would all end nicely in a few hours.

Perhaps not.

Whatever the case, she was going to stick around for a while. In Brockton Bay, you learned very quickly never to take things at face value, _especially_ if there was a Parahuman element. 

* * *

Sophia stopped whispering to Emma when she spotted a familiar flash of color out of the corner of her eye and turned her head. Armsmaster was just rounding the corner at the end of the corridor, heading their way with solid footsteps. "Just keep quiet, both of you," she said in a low voice to the other two girls she was stuck with. Emma was staring at the Tinker while Madison was sniffing a little, having spend quite a lot of the time since they'd been caught crying. It was sickening. The girl was far less of a predator than she'd pretended, and that wasn't saying much.

Emma and Sophia had been trying to work out a consistent story that they could use to talk themselves free. Sophia would have preferred to simply run, but that wasn't an option as long as this fucking chain was in place, and she had no way to remove it. Apparently neither did Armsmaster, which was concerning if she was honest with herself. The mere fact that it didn't allow her power to affect it meant it was something really freaky, since she'd never before found something like that other than an energized conductor carrying a reasonable amount of electricity.

She _had_ wondered if this was actually some sort of electrical restraint, but having carefully inspected the block of metal, then the chain and manacle leading to her leg, she couldn't see any indications that was the case. It _looked_ like some form of solid metal, the color a little odd but other than that nothing too exceptional.

A few things did stand out, though. One was that while the big block of the stuff was either glued to the floor or ridiculously heavy, the chains themselves were so light they felt like styrofoam when she handled them. Despite this, the things were so hard she couldn't make a mark on them even if she banged them together.

Which was difficult, because the fucking stuff was also so damn slippery she wasn't sure she was even touching it most of the time. It was like it was actually a force-field or something, almost like hard air. She'd spent a little time wondering if that was actually the case but couldn't think of any way to check.

Whatever it was, it totally ignored her power. She'd surreptitiously tried a couple of times when no one was looking to extract her leg in shadow form to no avail, and even experimented with prodding the chain with a shadowy finger. That merely bounced off like her power wasn't there at all, something that had _never_ happened before.

She'd decide that the stuff was actually implausibly heavy rather than glued down when she'd attempted to pick up one of her encased phones. While she was unable to get a grip on it, she did make it move very slightly in the process of trying, which lead her to believe that the block with her phone weighed around a hundred pounds. Even with it being so slippery she'd had to push very hard.

The larger anchor was vastly more than that, since even with all of them pulling together when she'd managed to get Madison to shut up for long enough to try, absolutely nothing had happened at all. One way or another, they weren't going anywhere until it was removed.

It was enough to make her want to kill Hebert. This was all her fault.

The fucking bitch was probably still crying. She was worse than Madison. And when she stopped she'd start telling stories, of course. Whether anyone would believe them Sophia didn't know. Hopefully not. And if they did… Blackwell had been covering for them all for months, which should cast a lot of doubt on anything Hebert said.

By now Armsmaster was half way towards them, his gaze fixed on her and his exposed chin giving the impression of a clenched fist with a beard on it. The mental image this made slightly amused her despite her own anger.

Her amusement disappeared very suddenly when someone else came around the corner behind him.

Next to her, Emma gasped, while Madison seemed to stop breathing with a squeak.

They all watched with wide eyes as a gigantic reptilian thing that must have been over seven feet tall, so black it was almost invisible despite the corridor being well lit from the windows at intervals down it, and with glowing green eyes that were inspecting them with interest, came closer. It stopped next to Armsmaster.

"Ah," it said after it had finished apparently studying them closely. "Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes, and Madison Clements. Your reputation precedes you."

"Who the fuck are you?" Sophia blustered, determined not to show fear.

Armsmaster watched as the thing leaned down towards them. All of the girls leaned away, even Sophia, without conscious thought.

"My name is Metis. I think you met my cousin Saurial?" The huge lizard smiled slowly. "She's not fond of you and she's a very good judge of character."

"I've never heard of either of you until today," Sophia managed to say. "How the hell have _you_ heard of _us?_ "

Metis tapped the side of her muzzle and winked. "That would be telling." She straightened up again, her eyes glinting like someone who was trying not to laugh, while they gaped at her. "Right, then, you three. Stand up."

"What?" Emma said in a high pitched voice.

"Stand up. You're leaving."

Several seconds passed, then each of the girls stood. Madison was somewhat unsteady and reached out for support from Emma, who shook her off without looking. Sophia stood defiantly, alternating between glaring at the lizard and Armsmaster, who was watching silently.

"Let us go," Emma demanded. "This is illegal detention or something." She turned to the Tinker. "These lizards aren't cops, they can't just tie us up like this."

"Citizen's arrest," Metis chuckled. "You could think of it like that if you want. Saurial caught all three of you red-handed in the commission of a crime, assault specifically, and restrained you to not only prevent your escape until the correct authorities got here, but to allow her to rescue your victim."

Emma stared, then looked at Armsmaster again.

"It is certainly one viable description of the events," he nodded. "Anyone is technically allowed to place a suspected criminal under arrest, particularly if a crime is directly witnessed, as long as the correct authorities are immediately informed. Which they were. Obviously, if this is done without reason or proof, the person in question would lay themselves open to charges, possibly up to kidnap or assault." He paused, then added, "The subject is complex but in this specific case seems entirely justified."

"You haven't got any proof we were involved," Emma shouted.

"We have Sophia's fingerprints and DNA on the lock," Armsmaster replied evenly. "I ran the test myself. That puts her at the scene."

"Maybe she just touched the lock by accident."

"Her fingerprints are also on the inside of the locker door."

Emma's mouth opened, then closed. Sophia's heart sank. Fuck, she should have wiped the locker down. She'd worn gloves for obvious reasons when filling the damn thing with all that shit, but she'd forgotten that she'd touched the inside of the locker the previous time they'd taken something from it. And _hadn't_ been wearing gloves that time…

Or the other times either, now that she thought about it.

After a few seconds, Emma tried again. Sophia had to admire her persistence even though she was wishing her friend would think a little harder. But she couldn't say anything herself without risking Armsmaster finding out more than she wanted. There was still the possibility that she could come up with some excuse to get out of this.

"That was Sophia's locker last year. _That's_ why it's got her fingerprints inside it."

Turning her head to look at the red-head, Sophia wondered why her friend thought for even a second _that_ excuse would fly, since it was very easy to check. The look in the other girl's eyes showed she was just desperately trying to come up with anything that might help and already knew it was a stupid excuse.

"I doubt that is true, Miss Barnes," Armsmaster replied immediately in a way that made it abundantly clear he was certain it _wasn't_. "I think it much more likely that Miss Hess has gained access to Miss Hebert's locker without Miss Hebert's knowledge or permission."

"You're not going to be able to talk yourselves out of this," Metis said, looking satisfied. "You got caught. Live with the results."

"There's no proof _I_ was involved!" Emma screamed at the top of her voice in a shrill panicky tone. "Fine, you've got Sophia, but I didn't know anything about it!"

Sophia gave her friend a look of betrayal, her ears ringing. The technicians who were still working on the lockers, two of them running scanning equipment along the base of the entire block and had been otherwise ignoring them, turned to stare as well.

Armsmaster merely turned around, walked to the other side of the corridor, and plucked a tiny device from the wall where it had been attached somehow. Sophia wondered when that had been put there, then remembered he'd paused at that point earlier when he'd finished talking to the hazmat team the first time, apparently looking out the window for a few seconds. Pulling another piece of equipment from a recess in his power armor, he snapped the first widget into it. A couple of seconds later, they all heard Sophia's voice come from the thing, clearly whispering but loud enough for everyone to make out easily.

" _Don't tell them anything other than what we talked about_ ," it said. " _If we all stick to the same story, we might be able to make them believe we didn't do anything. But if any of us breaks, they'll use that to fuck all of us._ "

" _My dad will get us out,_ " Emma's voice said apparently confidently. " _No one will believe Hebert_."

" _We should have thought of something else to put in there_ ," Madison spoke, sounding frightened. " _Did you hear those fire guys talking? They said that the entire floor is contaminated. The school might have to close to clean it up! I thought this was just going to involve Taylor, not everyone else._ "

" _Shut up, Madison, you were happy enough to provide some of the crap we put in there_ ," Emma snarled. " _Just keep your mouth shut, got it? Let me and Sophia do the talking._ "

" _Both of you let_ ** _me_** _do the talking_ ," Sophia growled. " _I know how they work, you guys don't._ "

The recording halted as Armsmaster turned the playback off. "There is a visual record as well," he announced. "Colluding with each other hardly helps your case."

"You put a _camera_ on the wall?" Emma squawked in horror. "You can't _do_ that!"

"You're mistaken, Miss Barnes," he replied, for the first time smiling very slightly. "I obviously can and did. A sensible precaution under the circumstances, I thought."

"Anyone else want to try?" Metis commented brightly, looking at each of them in turn. "No? OK. Let's get you outside." She reached down, grabbed the chains where they came out of the block of gray metal with her talons through the links, and lifted. Even Armsmaster appeared startled when the immensely heavy block came off the floor with no obvious problems. "Try to keep up, because I'll probably just drag you if you don't," the reptile said with a smile, then turned and trotted off.

The girls yelped and hurried to keep up, Emma nearly falling on her ass until Sophia grabbed her, even though right now she'd rather have punched her in the eye for throwing her under the bus. But if the girl went down she'd probably take Sophia and Madison down too.

As she walked as fast as she could after the lizard, Sophia realized that the thought was a metaphor way too close for comfort, all things considered.

Behind them, Armsmaster followed, looking thoughtful.


	5. Realizations

Having been abruptly distracted from the major project she'd been working on for over a week to the exclusion of pretty much everything else by an internal alert, Dragon carefully studied the new data once more and puzzled over what it could mean. Nothing like this had ever happened before as far as she could find out, even before her ' _birth._ '

The seismic traces that betrayed the presence of Behemoth deep under central Africa had abruptly ceased, the entire planet ringing like a bell from one sudden shockwave, then all evidence of the Endbringer stopping. Leviathan, who had been meandering around in the general vicinity of Macquarie Island off the southern coast of New Zealand, based on the SOSUS traces, had stopped dead, then taken off like a bat out of hell towards a point in the Indian Ocean, moving over twice as fast as they'd ever recorded him doing before. There were tsunami warnings going out for the entire south coast of Australia even now although so far it looked like nothing particularly hazardous would happen.

And the Simurgh pulled a five hundred G ninety degree turn in her orbital path over Chile and raised her altitude at the same time, reaching a geosynchronous orbit in mere minutes which put her almost over the horizon as seen from the east coast of North America, at which she now appeared to be looking.

All three Endbringers had done this at the _exact same time_ to the _millisecond_ as far as the data showed.

The big question was… why?

She did what in a human would have resulted in a puzzled shrug, and tried correlating their actions yet again with any available information on something that might have attracted their attention. She had no reports of major Parahuman disasters. Or even minor ones, for that matter. No volcanoes had exploded unexpectedly, her early warning systems hadn't shown there was an asteroid heading their way, there was no signs of solar flare activity… Nothing either natural, man-made, or Parahuman derived appeared important enough to attract the attention of all three Endbringers.

And ignoring that aspect, they were as far as she could tell _hiding,_ not _attacking._

 _That_ was utterly unprecedented. She had always assumed that attracting the attention of _any_ Endbringer would be catastrophic, but something seemed to have instead spooked the lot of them, which was… disturbing.

If whatever it was could do that to the _Endbringers_ , what would it do to _everyone else?  
_  
The AI felt a distinct sense of worry go through her processors, which was unusual and disconcerting.

Going back over every scrap of data she could find that covered that specific point in time, plus or minus fifteen minutes, she broadened her search parameters. Then, thinking about it, she narrowed them to concentrate on the east half of the US for the moment, as since that seemed to be where the Simurgh was fixated. It could be a trick of course, since that was what the fucking thing _did_ , but having looked again at the live telescopic view of the distant creature, the expression on its face worried her.

The mere fact that there _was_ an expression on that cold marble visage _terrified_ her.

She looked for something, _anything_ , that could possibly explain the current situation, assessing everything she found before dismissing each of them in turn.

 _Explosion at an oil refinery in Savannah, Georgia, two dead and fifteen injured._

Unlikely. Unfortunate, but preliminary reports suggested a long term failure of maintenance inevitably caused an avoidable accident. Not for the first time.

 _Hotel fire in Orlando, Florida, causing no casualties but ensuring the complete destruction of a landmark building._

Very unlikely. Almost certainly arson. She put a few disparate facts together and emailed the result to the Orlando police department, then moved on.

 _Fifteen car pileup near Rochester, New York, five casualties, no fatalities._

No. Completely routine accident caused by driving too fast on icy roads.

 _Trawler off the coast of Portsmouth, Virginia, sent an SOS due to an engine fire._

No, poor maintenance and spare fuel stored improperly. Coast Guard already on scene.

Dozens of reports were located, assessed, and discarded. Dragon sent nearly fifty emailed data packets to various authorities as she came up with them, just to be helpful, but couldn't find anything that would be of interest to the Simurgh.

Wait.

She looked again at one specific report that came to her attention, then quickly found more details.

 _Crime in progress in a high school, students exposed to toxic biological waste, three students accused of deliberate malfeasance…_

 ** _Brockton Bay._**

Dragon, in her mindscape, paused and stared at those two words.

Then she carefully compared times, and mulled over the accompanying data.

 _Unknown Parahumans. Multiple powers used. Biological incident that would necessitate closing of an entire school and decontamination of the site._

A link to one specific PHO video was followed and the video watched.

One of the perpetrators of this mess was a _Ward_. The local moderator had swiftly redacted the information and punted the poster who had provided the video, but it was too late as it was mirrored in multiple places by then.

Shadow Stalker had been involved. An unknown reptilian Parahuman had rescued the victim, then two more had turned up, one of them making apparently entirely accurate accusations. _Then_ the first two had vanished along with the victim and the victim's father.

She spent what was for her some time going back and forth over the information, pulling in everything she could find, including internal PRT reports that had been filed since this happened about three hours ago. More data was constantly coming in. The incident now involved the local police and fire departments as well as the PRT, had reached other federal agencies who were starting to react, and was all over the news locally. It was bound to reach national level in hours if only due to the Parahuman connection. No matter what the PRT did, they wouldn't be able to stop the media finding out about the Ward connection, since there was video of the fucking girl actually using her powers to try to escape.

The fact that she'd _failed_ was one of the most interesting things, Dragon mused.

Nevertheless, that girl was screwed, and it was going to reflect badly on the PRT ENE, and possibly on her best friend. And almost certainly cause the school to need an entire new administration and teaching staff when it reopened, which wasn't going to be soon. Having scanned the preliminary toxicological report from the hazmat technicians, she mentally winced.

The biological waste had been detected in aerosolized form and quite high concentrations throughout that entire wing of the school, and they suspected it was likely everywhere in at least half the building. Several of the pathogens so far found were potentially very dangerous. The whole place would require deep sterilization to meet federal guidelines and one corridor would probably have to be completely torn out and rebuilt. If the place was newer, that would have meant demolition of the whole building, but in this case being an old and very solidly made construction was a minor plus. Even so, it was a major incident that was going to cost in the low millions to sort out.

Yep. Those three girls were going to have a very bad time of it, no doubt of that.

She examined the images of the locker closely, considering what a human teenager would have experienced inside the damn thing, then went over the small number of witness reports from other students that had so far been filed, along with other information from PHO. It looked like half the student body of the school was frantically posting on the forum, and the other half was equally frantically reading the posts to find out what was going on. Most of it was ill informed rumor and wild theories, of course, this being normal for internet forums, but she had a lot of practice winnowing out the kernels of real data from the vast amount of chaff.

It all pointed at a prolonged and vicious campaign of psychological warfare, on a level that was close to torture. It was disturbing not only for the impact it would inevitably have on the girl who was the focus of it, but what it said about her tormentors. _And_ what it said about the school administration that they hadn't stopped it much earlier.

The involvement of a Ward was undoubtedly a significant contributing factor to that, she thought. But it was also proof that other people in a position of authority had badly dropped the ball and simply not cared what would happen.

It was appalling.

Not only on a purely humanitarian level, but didn't these people have the first idea about Trigger events? This sort of abuse was practically _designed_ to push someone into Triggering if they were capable of it, and the end result of that was statistically far more likely to be a villain than a hero. She'd encountered much milder events in the past which had caused some poor child to Trigger and a significant number had ended in total chaos. Some with a body count.

None of this was a secret from the point of view of the authorities, so it baffled her that this had been allowed to go on like it had. Self-preservation alone would tend to suggest it was in the best interests of everyone involved to clamp down on this sort of thing.

But then, humans were weird, and far more often than ideal didn't think things through to the logical end point, she sighed to herself. As much as she liked them, there was no denying the fact that a lot of them were just _stupid…  
_  
While there was no direct evidence that this poor Hebert girl _had_ Triggered, it wouldn't surprise her at all if that was the case. That might explain the interest of this new Parahuman group, in fact. She had been looking for any data on who they were and where they'd come from but had come up completely blank. No previous sightings even in rumor, no information on motives, methods, powers, or anything useful at all other than the reports the people at this incident had so far produced. Which, while interesting, was severely lacking in detail.

Eventually she exhausted all the sources she had. Thinking about it, she checked the image of the Simurgh once more. It was still apparently looking in broadly the same direction that Brockton Bay lay in. There was nothing else she could find that looked like a more likely source of the Endbringer's attention, but even as bad as the event was, Dragon couldn't immediately see why the thing would be interested in it.

The possibility that seemed most likely was the three new Parahumans. But why would _all three Endbringers_ react to them? At the same exact time, too? How did they even _know_ about it in the first place? The Simurgh was feasible, the damn creature had ridiculously overpowered pre- and post-cognition abilities, but the other two didn't.

As far as they were aware, anyway.

 _That_ thought made Dragon pause, worried. Then she had another one...

Perhaps the Simurgh had told them.

That one made her _very_ worried. If the things started _cooperating_ they were so far beyond fucked it wasn't even funny.

Thinking of something else, she double-checked the first reported encounter with this ' _Saurial_ ' character, comparing timestamps from a number of PHO posts and videos, then correlated the results to come up with the closest timeline she could. Then she compared it to the moment when the Endbringers had booked it.

Within a plus or minus one second window, they matched perfectly to the time Saurial had arrived in the school corridor.

' _Fuck_ ** _me_** ,' Dragon thought in total shock, then ignored the impossibility of the concept in her case and quickly opened a link to Colin.

She needed to talk to him _right now_. 

* * *

Roaring up to the police line half a block from the school, Alan slammed on the brakes, ripped the keys from the ignition, then jumped out of his car almost before it had stopped moving. Slamming the door he ran towards the barrier even as he reflexively pressed the lock button on the key fob, the BMW chirping behind him.

"Hey!" One of the cops manning it came running over as Alan ducked under the barrier tape and headed towards the school entrance. "Get back on the other side, you're not authorized to be here!"

"My daughter is in there!" Alan shouted, sprinting towards the gate and the emergency vehicles there.

"Lots of people's kids are in there," the cop replied loudly as he followed. "You still can't go in. Stop or I'll taze your ass, you idiot."

Ignoring him, Alan ran as fast as he could, already panting hard. Being a divorce lawyer paid well but it didn't do a lot for the stamina, he was finding out.

"Grab him!" the cop behind him shouted, several other BBPD people and a couple of PRT troopers now looking to see what the commotion was. Ducking around one of the latter in a display of reflexes he was definitely going to pay for in the morning, Alan ran right into another man who jumped out from behind one of the cruisers and grabbed his arm, then neatly spun him around and twisted the appendage up behind his shoulder-blades.

"Look, buddy, you can't go in there," the second cop said fairly calmly, holding him as he struggled violently then yelped in pain. "It's a crime scene, and the entire place is quarantined anyway. I know you have a kid in there but so do I. Neither one of us can do anything about it right now. Calm down for a minute, will you? Or I'll have to arrest you."

Alan wrenched at his captor's hold, yelped again as the cop pushed his arm a little higher, then sagged. "Fuck," he moaned. "My daughter…"

"Don't panic," the police officer advised with a certain amount of sympathy. "No one is really hurt as far as I know. Your daughter is probably fine. The building has been locked down for a couple of hours now and all the students and staff are being brought out in small groups so they can be interviewed. Are you going to behave if I let you go?"

After a moment, Alan nodded. "OK." The cop standing behind him relaxed his hold cautiously, then when the lawyer didn't immediately bolt for it, released him.

"Good. Please don't start anything, I'd hate to have to drop you under the circumstances." Alan turned to look at him as the first cop came over, having slowed to a walk when his colleague had stepped in.

"Everything under control, Jeff?" he asked, keeping a wary eye on Alan and one hand on his taser.

"It's fine, Mick, he's just another upset dad. He won't do it again." The officer looked at Alan. "Right?"

"Sorry," Alan said quietly. "I'm just terrified about my daughter. When they said she'd been involved in some sort of Parahuman incident… I started imagining some pretty horrible things, you know?"

"I get it," the cop said, nodding. "I'd like to get my son out too, but neither of us can do that right now. Everyone's working as fast as they can to let the kids go home, trust me."

After a moment, he frowned slightly. "Actually… who called you? You said someone told you your daughter was involved, right? Or did you just see it on the news or something?"

"No, someone from the PRT called," Alan replied, making the cops look at each other then study him with greater interest. "They wouldn't tell me what was going on but said I needed to get here." He smiled in an embarrassed manner, calmer now and able to react more sensibly. "I panicked when I saw all the emergency vehicles."

"I see," the second cop said slowly. "What's your name, and your daughter's?"

"I'm Alan Barnes, Emma Barnes my daughter."

Once more the two men exchanged glances.

"Emma Barnes, you said?"

"Yes." Alan wondered why they were looking at him like that and started to get very worried again. "You told me she was OK, but you know something, I can tell. Is she hurt?" His voice was rising in volume and tone.

"Calm down, Mr Barnes, let's not got overexcited, all right?" ' _Jeff_ ' said soothingly. "I just have to go and find someone. I'll be right back. Stay here with Mick and don't go anywhere."

Alan watched as he walked quickly off, meeting one of the PRT people at the gate and having a short discussion with him. The sergeant he'd talked to came back with him, after apparently speaking over his radio to someone else if the hand raised to his ear was indicative of anything.

When they stopped in front of him, the PRT man said, "I'm Sergeant Kowalski, Sir. You are Alan Barnes and your daughter is Emma Barnes, correct?"

"Yes," he nodded, feeling very concerned and rather confused.

"Please come with me, Sir."

"Are you taking me to Emma?" he asked quickly as the man turned away. "Is Emma hurt?"

Looking back, the trooper simply repeated, "Please come with me, Sir." After a second, he added a little more sympathetically, "Your daughter is uninjured."

Alan followed the man, alternating between mild panic and sheer puzzlement. It appeared that Emma's name had been recognized, which strongly suggested she was directly involved in whatever the hell all _this_ was. But how?

At least they seemed sure she wasn't hurt, so it couldn't be too bad, right?

He tried to make himself believe that.

Entering the school grounds, he looked around as he kept following the sergeant, seeing that not only were there a lot of PRT staff all over the place, but the BBPD and BBFD both had a heavy presence. There were four people wearing what looked like environmentally sealed suits, bright yellow and complete with backpack life support systems, like something from a movie. His eyes widened and his heart jolted as he spotted them coming out of the front door and heading towards a large truck festooned with warning labels and equipment, two of them carrying containers with a prominent biohazard symbol on.

' _Good god, what_ ** _happened_** _here?_ ' he thought in shock, staring at them wide-eyed.

Looking up at the building itself he couldn't see any damage, but there were a lot of faces at most of the windows, many of them holding phones up. Lower down, he spotted Miss Militia and Battery talking next to a PRT vehicle that had been pulled up right next to the school entrance, all the doors of it open and computer screens visible inside with people working on them. This was apparently where he was being taken.

"Please wait for a moment, Mr Barnes," the sergeant he was following said when they were forty feet away, indicating he should stop. Obediently, although with suppressed wishes to scream in frustration and demand access to his daughter right _now_ Alan did as requested. The man went over to Miss Militia and talked to her for a few seconds, then indicated him. She looked over, then nodded. The sergeant waved at him to approach.

"Mr Barnes?" The heroine had a pleasant voice, he thought as he nodded, one that had a slight accent and was firm and direct.

"Yes. Look, what's going on? Where is Emma? Why do you want to talk to me?"

Her eyes, pretty much all that was visible above the scarf that covered her lower face, showed what looked like sympathy. He felt worried all over again. She apparently picked up on this and raised her hands. "Emma is unhurt, Mr Barnes, don't worry. But I'm afraid we need to talk." She glanced around, then pointed at another PRT truck. "In private."

Now extremely confused and apprehensive he followed yet another person. She opened the back door of the transport vehicle and waved the single trooper inside it to get out, the man quickly obeying. "If you'll just bear with me, Mr Barnes," she said, turning to him. "I'm sorry about all this. Please get in."

About to object, he finally sighed, shrugged, and did so. She also climbed into the vehicle and closed the door. "Have a seat," she invited, pointing at one of the seats lining the sides of the truck. He sat, finding it was surprisingly comfortable all things considered. She followed suit opposite him.

"What the hell is going on?" he exploded, quickly lowering his voice to something more reasonable. "Sorry, but this is getting very odd and I have no idea what is happening. All I know is that someone from the PRT told me to come to the school because my daughter was somehow involved in some Parahuman matter and when I get here I find something that looks like a Hollywood disaster movie is being shot."

She appeared to smile under the mask if he was reading her eyes right. ""I'm sorry, Mr Barnes, I know this is confusing." She sighed faintly. "I need to ask you some questions first. Do you know a Danny Hebert?"

He stared, then nodded. "Of course. He's one of my oldest friends, we went to college together and I've known the guy since he was about sixteen. He's had a hard time of things since his wife died a couple of years back, poor woman, and I haven't seen him that much recently. But my daughter and his are like sisters. They practically grew up together."

She looked at him silently for a moment, her expression almost impossible to read. "That would be Taylor?"

"Yes. Nice girl, bookish and a bit quiet most of the time, but smart as a whip and very nice. Spitting image of her mother at that age too. She's going to be a pretty girl when she's older, although the last time I saw her she was a skinny thing." He smiled a little, thinking back to when Taylor had last come to his house. "She and Emma were inseparable when they were younger. Always doing weird things together." After a moment, he frowned slightly. "She hasn't been around much for the last year or so, though. I suppose losing her mother was as bad for her as it was for Danny. The poor kid took it hard, I know, I remember the funeral. That was… bad."

"Does your daughter talk much about Taylor Hebert?" Miss Militia asked.

"Not as much as she used to," he responded, thinking. And wondering how this was relevant. Hopefully Taylor hadn't been hurt in whatever this was. Emma would be inconsolable if her childhood friend was harmed, he was sure, even if they'd drifted apart a little. He knew _he'd_ be very upset if Danny was hurt.

"All right." She nodded. "I understand you know another of Emma's friends, Sophia Hess?"

"Sophia." He smiled. "Yes, I know Sophia quite well. She's… an interesting girl. Rather more intense than most kids her age, you can definitely put it that way. A little more aggressive than I'd like to see in someone her age, but hopefully she'll grow out of it in time." He shrugged a little. "People change as they get older, of course. I wouldn't have expected Emma to really become friends with her, to be honest, it was a surprise, but they seem to get on well."

"Would you say she's an angry person?"

"Huh. Yes, you could put it that way, I guess." He considered the question. "I understand she had something of a troubled upbringing so it's understandable. Not ideal, but I can see why she would be like that."

"You said she was aggressive," the woman asked, having nodded as he spoke. "Would you consider her violent?"

"Well..." He carefully thought over his initial response and reworded it slightly. "I wouldn't say _violent_ as such, since I've never seen any signs of that, but I suspect the young woman probably wouldn't back down from a fight. She's athletic and in good shape so I expect if someone started something she'd give as good as she got."

Miss Militia nodded thoughtfully again. "I see. Do you know if Sophia knows Taylor?"

"I have no idea," he replied after a moment, confused. "Possibly? I mean, they go to the same school, and are both friends of Emma, so probably I suppose. But I have no idea if they're friends."

"Would you consider _Taylor_ to be either aggressive or violent? Or a troublemaker at all?"

"Taylor? A troublemaker?" He chuckled, shaking his head. "I mean, some of the things she and Emma got up to when they were younger were… inventive… but there was no malice in it. And she's a sweet girl, very pleasant to talk to once you get past the initial shyness. Emma was always more outgoing, while Taylor probably tended to do most of the thinking. Not that Emma is stupid because she isn't at all, but Taylor is a lot smarter than most people. Takes after her mother like that too. And stubborn as hell, _that_ part is pure Danny."

He considered the odd question again. "Definitely not violent at all. But Danny is noted for having a real temper if you manage to provoke him enough. I've never seen Taylor angry but if she takes after him like that, she'd be a bad person to push too hard. Heberts tend to have long memories and an inventive streak where it comes to justified revenge, Danny once told me." He smiled at the memory. "Some of the stories he mentioned about his father…"

She nodded yet again, still seeming thoughtful. "One final question. Do you know a girl called Madison Clements?"

"No," he replied with a shake of his head. "I've never met her, although I think Emma might have mentioned a Madison once or twice."

"All right, Mr Barnes, thank you for answering my questions."

"OK, I've done that. _Now_ will you tell me where my daughter is and what's going in?" he replied when she looked up from apparently contemplating the floor of the truck, feeling a burst of impatience go through him again although he was doing everything he could to stay composed. "And why all the interest in Sophia and Taylor?"

She took a breath and let it out slowly.

"At just after half past ten this morning, there was an incident in Winslow involving Taylor Hebert, your daughter, Sophia Hess, and another girl, Madison Clements," Miss Militia began in an even voice. "And a previously unknown Parahuman called Saurial, who arrived on scene at that time..."

He listened to the story that she told him in a professional and calm manner with growing disbelief and horror. It couldn't _possibly_ be true.

Could it? 

* * *

Metis carefully put the block of impossibly heavy metal into the back of the transport truck once all three girls tethered to it had climbed reluctantly inside, sitting next to each other in seats that folded down from the wall. She smiled at them. "Enjoy the trip," she said with a faint chuckle, then turned away. Sophia made a rude gesture behind her back. "You really shouldn't do that to someone who can bite your hand off, you know," the lizard remarked casually as she moved away from the truck, causing Sophia to visibly pale and both the others to look terrified.

"Don't worry, though, humans don't taste nearly as good as you'd think," Metis snickered, turning her long neck to look back at them. One glowing green eye winked.

Madison fainted.

The two troopers standing next to the truck exchanged a glance, then one of them got inside and the other closed the doors. Colin watched the whole process, following as Metis went over to her original position and resumed her guard duty. "Was that comment necessary?" he asked mildly.

"No. But it _was_ amusing," she replied with a smirk. "I've let Saurial and Raptaur know you need to talk to them, they shouldn't be long now."

"Thank you." He looked back at the truck, then asked, "Out of interest, what _is_ that material? It's far too hard and dense to be natural."

"That's something specific to us," Metis replied after appearing to think for a moment. "Unique, in fact. We make a lot of use of it in more places than you'd expect."

"Which doesn't answer the question," he pressed.

"I know," she smiled. He stared at her, and she relented, although as far as he could determine seemed to find something funny. "We call it EDM."

"Which stands for?"

"Electron Degenerate Matter."

After he ran those words through his incredulous mind a couple of times, he managed to ask, " _Why_ do you call it that?"

She shrugged, grinning. "Why not? That's what it _is._ "

There was silence for several seconds.

"You are stating that Saurial restrained those three girls with manacles made out of electron degenerate matter." His voice was totally flat.

"I am."

"The same form of matter that only exists in the core of certain massive stars."

"The very same stuff, yes."

"Which is, _somehow_ , stable at normal pressures and temperatures, _and_ a super-hard solid, not a violently expanding mass of energy and subatomic particles as theory would insist it _should_ be under such circumstances. Leaving aside the minor issue that it should mass some ten thousand kilograms per cubic centimeter, which would give that block a weight of over two hundred and eighty three thousand metric tons."

"Entirely correct. You know your science." Even he could tell she was amused.

They looked at each other for another few seconds.

" _How?!_ " he finally had to ask, his voice slightly unstable. If she was actually _right_ this was…

He had no _idea_ what this was, aside from impossible. Even in a world used to Parahumans.

He checked the truck again. It didn't have a square foot hole in the underside. Neither did the school corridor floor. That block was insanely heavy, but it certainly didn't weigh over a quarter of a million tons.

"Stabilized EDM can exist in two forms, true mass or reduced mass," she told him, still smiling a little. "The low mass variant is a little over seventy grams per cc. That block only weighs roughly five tons."

That correlated well with the deflection of the vehicle suspension, he decided, which implied that this part at least was accurate. And told him that she was very strong indeed, as she'd picked the thing up with no visible trouble. Definitely a high level Brute aside from anything else.

His mind reeling at the concept, he asked "How?" again. How could these lizards _possibly_ keep something that should only exist in the core of a supergiant or on the surface of a neutron star stable? There was enough bound energy in that innocent looking block of metal, assuming she was telling the truth, to remove half the state from existence if whatever was preventing it from reverting to what it _should_ be failed.

Colin felt a sudden urge to move further away from the vehicle but suppressed it firmly. It wouldn't help anyway…

She tapped the side of her muzzle, her expression hard to read. "Magic," she snickered.

About to point out that no such thing existed, no matter what certain capes in Chicago might have deluded themselves into believing, he stopped as he got an alert on his HUD. "Excuse me, Metis, something has come up," he apologized. "I must deal with it."

"Sure, no problem," she nodded. "I'll be here."

Moving away to a more private location, in case her hearing was even better than he'd estimated, he flicked his eyes in the particular motion that answered the call from Dragon. It was one of the most used macros of the control system. "Hello, Dragon," he sub-vocalized. "Have you finished your project? I wasn't expecting to hear from you until this evening."

" _No, Colin, but something more important has come up_ ," his best friend's voice said, her slight Canadian accent more audible than normal. She sounded worried, he decided, after checking his emotional subtext software which agreed. " _What the hell is going on in Brockton Bay?_ "

Somewhat surprised, he replied after a moment, "A very unpleasant situation involving some people who should have known better even at their age. Unfortunately I fear it's too late for them to avoid some serious repercussions. And it's causing considerable problems for us."

" _Yes, I've been reading all the reports,_ " she said. The tiny image of her CGI avatar in his HUD nodded. " _It sounds appalling. But what I meant is, who are these new Parahumans? Where did they come from, have you established that yet?_ "

"We don't know," he said. "They haven't volunteered that information at this point in time and dealing with the current events took priority. I'm hoping to find out shortly."

" _Is there anything particularly noteworthy or unusual about them?_ " she inquired, her voice odd.

He raised an eyebrow. "In addition to them apparently being sapient reptiles?"

" _Yes_."

"They have an exceptional mix of powers," he replied. "I believe that at least two of them are high level Trumps. So far we have seen evidence of Brute, Stranger, Mover, and probably Shaker abilities demonstrated or implied. I suspect that there is also a Thinker rating of some form too. At this moment I wouldn't like to be certain that's all, bearing in mind that we haven't talked to them about their abilities in a formal setting."

" _That's an unusual mix,_ " she pointed out, now looking very thoughtful.

"I realize that. However it matches what we've seen."

" _Anything else?_ "

He thought about the concept of EDM.

"Recently acquired information suggests that the Shaker rating may be _very_ high."

Her eyes narrowed. " _ **How** high?_"

Sighing, he tried to think of the best way to put it. "Possibly as high as it goes."

There was a short pause, then she quietly but urgently asked, " _What do you mean?_ "

"I have just been told by the one called Metis that the material the three girls were restrained with, and that Shadow Stalker's powers apparently cannot bypass, is… some form of electron degenerate matter, made stable and solid through means I don't know. And reduced in mass to an implausible degree in the process."

Her avatar simply froze, going completely motionless like the link had dropped.

After a few seconds had passed, he said, "Dragon?"

There was no response.

"Dragon? Are you there?" Colin began to run a diagnostic to see where the problem lay.

" _Electron degenerate matter?_ " her voice said faintly, the avatar coming back to life. He aborted the systems check even as he nodded.

"So I am told."

" _ **Solid** electron degenerate matter? At standard temperature and pressure? And it hasn't sunk into the crust instantly?_"

Her voice sounded odd, even compared to earlier.

"That is the information I was given, yes," he confirmed. "I have no way to verify it as yet. I would dismiss it entirely if it wasn't for the fact that the material is far too dense to be anything that naturally occurs, is harder than even the synthetic lonsdaleite cutting tool you provided to me, and has almost no measurable friction according to my preliminary data. I haven't been able to run any comprehensive tests as of yet, but those three facts eliminate everything I am aware of, including all Parahuman-derived materials."

She didn't respond. After a moment, he added, "There is currently no explanation provided as to how this could be done, other than Metis claiming it was magic. Which is obviously some form of joke as there is no such thing."

Dragon finally spoke. " _The Endbringers are doing something odd_ ," she said in a strangely intense voice. He instantly tensed.

"Odd? What do you mean?" Colin asked rapidly. "Is there an attack imminent? The next cycle shouldn't be starting for..."

She cut him off. " _No, they're not attacking_ ," she said with a shake of the computer-generated head. " _That's not the problem_."

"What is?" He was puzzled now, and growing concerned.

" _They seem to be..._ " She seemed reluctant to say the next word, but after a moment went on, "... _hiding._ "

"Hiding," he repeated, wondering if he'd heard correctly.

She nodded. " _Hiding. All of them._ "

They looked at each other.

"From what?" He eventually asked the obvious question.

" _Colin… I think it's those lizards_ ," she said after a long sigh.

He turned his head to look at Metis, who was watching him. She smiled, then went back to playing another game on her phone. It seemed to be some sort of racing game based on the sounds.

"You think the Endbringers are hiding from the new Parahumans who are here in the city," he asked very carefully, almost speaking out loud in his surprise.

" _Yes_."

"The _Endbringers_."

" _Yes_."

" _Hiding."_ He wanted to be absolutely certain he had heard correctly.

" _Hiding. Yes_."

"From the lizards."

" _Correct_."

He didn't say anything for nearly half a minute, trying to work out what she was talking about, since on the face of it the whole concept was utterly absurd.

"Please don't think I distrust your conclusions, but I must confess to be having trouble with this," he began, " _Why_ would the _Endbringers,_ all _three_ of them, the three most destructive entities on the entire planet, be _hiding_ from a group of reptilian Parahumans, whatever their origins and abilities?"

"Because we terrify them," a voice said from behind him.

Colin whipped around to see Raptaur and another armored female reptile standing behind him, both of them watching him with identical small smiles. The new one stepped forward, holding out her hand, which he automatically took, while wondering frantically how the hell she'd heard his discussion with Dragon and how _much_ she'd heard.

"I'm Saurial," she added, still smiling. "It's nice to meet you, Armsmaster. We need to talk."

"About many, many things," Raptaur added pleasantly.

Everyone in the vicinity was now watching them, and Metis was _definitely_ smirking.

But still playing her game. 

* * *

****  
"What the hell is going on?" Rebecca looked around the infirmary in shock. On one bed, David was lying nearly comatose, groaning to himself despite the massive dose of painkillers he'd been administered after he collapsed without warning a little while ago. That had heralded the start of whatever _this_ was. Another one contained Kurt, who was staring at the ceiling with the weirdest smile she'd ever seen in her _life_ , apparently reciting Pi to a completely ridiculous number of digits in a dreamy voice.

Doctor Mother was looking at a screen displaying a whole series of complex medical notes, writing with her left hand and not apparently noticing. She didn't respond to the question.

Several other Cauldron Thinkers were unconscious on other beds, with medical personnel attending to them. None of them was even as lucid as David, which wasn't very lucid at all. Even so, one of them seemed to be giggling very faintly, or was it snickering? She wasn't sure. Another twitched every now and then.

"Are we under attack somehow?" she asked more loudly. Doctor Mother jumped a little in her seat, then looked irritably over her shoulder at the other woman.

"I have no idea," she snapped. "Now let me work. This is most peculiar."

"KE equals one half M times V squared!" Kurt shouted suddenly, making everyone conscious stare at him, a couple of nurses yelping in startled shock. Then he went back to muttering an endless stream of digits.

"Quite," Doctor Mother remarked sourly, giving him another look then turning back to her computer screen. "Ignore him, he keeps doing that," she added in absent tones, making some more notes.

Rebecca gaped at her, then the apparently delirious Number man.

"What the goddam _fuck_ is happening?" she shouted at the top of her voice.

A sound behind her made her turn around to see Contessa stumbling through the door, a blood-soaked cloth held to her nose and her normally immaculate suit disheveled. Her omnipresent fedora was missing entirely.

The women locked eyes.

"Path to unconsciousness," Contessa whispered. Then she fell over.

Barely catching her in time despite her powers, Rebecca carried her to another bed and carefully put her on it, then moved out of the way to let a doctor get to her. He did a quick examination, before shaking his head and motioning to a pair of nurses who rushed over with a cart full of medical equipment. "Probably a TIA or something similar," he commented, lifting an eyelid and flicking a penlight at it. "Possibly a minor aneurysm. Pupils are equal and responding, but she's deeply unconscious and non-reactive." He glanced at Rebecca who was watching with dismay. "I don't know if it's power related or not but she's not going anywhere in the near future."

"Christ," she muttered. "What in god's name is going on? This has to be some sort of attack."

"It seems to be affecting Thinkers specifically, whatever it is," he said over his shoulder as he ran more tests. "Possibly some other Parahuman ability, but I can't tell you anything useful at the moment."

She watched for a little longer, then walked over to Doctor Mother, who kept ignoring her as she worked. In the end deciding that she needed to go and check if there was any sign of who and what could be doing this, she returned to her office, then said, "Door to PRT headquarters."

Nothing happened.

It was still not happening half an hour of increasingly frantic attempts later, when she slumped into her desk chair and stared blankly at the wall. 

* * *

****  
"Would you like dessert?" Danny asked his daughter, who nodded eagerly. "I think there's some raspberry ripple ice cream left in the freezer."

"Thanks, Dad," Taylor smiled as he went to get it. She turned another page in the book she'd been reading during their meal, then made an interested sound. "Oh, cool," she added quietly.

He looked over his shoulder at her, smiled a little, and decided that as mad as they were, the alternate version or versions of the girl were decent people. Even if today had been _very_ weird so far and looked likely to become more so as time went on.

Still, with any luck things would work out in the end.


	6. Interactions

" _Hess is in a PRT troop transport along with two other kids and a guard at the moment_ ," Victor said, his voice low. " _Too many people around to risk doing anything here, the place is crawling with PRT, cops, and god knows who else. I haven't see this much activity for years._ " He paused as Max listened with interest, then added, " _Huh. Looks like some other Feds just turned up, two government SUVs stopped outside and one of the guys inside the first one is waving a badge at the cops_."

"FBI?"

" _Not sure. Might be. I don't recognize any of them. Four guys in suits. They're going inside the barricades now. Doesn't change anything from our point of view though_."

"We'll need to wait until the transport is somewhere without so many witnesses," Max said.

" _Yeah, that's the plan. Miss Militia got into another vehicle with some guy who came roaring up in a BMW about twenty minutes ago and nearly got shot by the cops when he ran towards the school. She's still in there, don't know what that's about. Maybe one of the parents? Looked like an accountant or a lawyer or something. But it's keeping her busy. Armsmaster and that black lizard thing are talking. He looks confused._ "

Max chuckled a little, keeping one eye on the TV which was broadcasting a live shot of the scene. The camera operator was doing his best to get an angle that showed the reptilian Parahuman Victor was talking about, but there were enough people moving around that it was only intermittently visible. Still, he could see enough to see that the thing was fucking enormous and looked dangerous.

"I'm not surprised, to be honest."

" _You wouldn't_ ** _believe_** _how black it is, it's like a lizard shaped cutout in the world,"_ his subordinate commented. _"You'd never see it in the dark at all. Weirdest thing I've ever seen._ "

"I wonder if that's some sort of Shaker or Breaker power?" he mused out loud.

" _No idea. It's not like Shadow Stalker's power, it's… hard to explain, but it's more solid looking than that. Whatever, it's not important._ "

"Fair enough. Where are New Wave?"

" _They're just standing off to the side watching and talking. Lady Photon is on the phone, she looks annoyed. The other two are looking bored_."

Victor fell silent for a moment, then his voice came back. " _Armsmaster's stopped talking to the lizard and walked away, now he's just standing there. Not sure… OK, Miss Militia just got out of the truck with that guy from earlier. He looks like someone just ate his puppy. Practically in shock. One of the parents, maybe? She's talking to him, just gave him some paperwork which he's looking at and handed him off to one of the PRT troopers. Now she's heading towards Assault and Battery. The hazmat team is going back inside again, and two the Feds are putting on protective suits too_."

"They might be CDC," Max suggested thoughtfully. "There was something on the news about ten minutes back saying that the biohazard was so bad they were going to get involved. Some speculation that the school might get shut down entirely."

" _Could be, that would fit with what I'm watching. They've been bringing out students and staff in small groups and scanning them, they're going into one end of a big truck and coming out the other. A couple of them have been taken to a PRT medical vehicle. Most look like they're being interviewed then sent home. Witness statements probably._ "

"That little animal really managed to cause a major problem." Max shook his head, his attention drawn back to the TV as the broadcast went back to the studio where an expert from the university on disease control was being interviewed in suitably breathless style. "I'm almost impressed."

Victor sounded amused when he responded, " _I can tell you that the PRT doesn't look impressed. Pissed beyond belief, definitely, but not impressed._ "

"Even better for our purposes. The bigger this blows up, the more blame on everyone involved, and the more attention on those girls. And the better the PR is when an absconding disgraced Ward gets captured and returned out of the goodness of our hearts and a sincere desire to help the community despite minor differences with the authorities." Max smiled to himself as Victor laughed again.

" _Sounds good to me. Hopefully we can work it. I've got several people watching Lung right now from a safe distance. He's in his usual safe house, Oni Lee's there too and about thirty ABB. No sign he knows we're watching_."

"In other words, everything isn't already burning..." Max said dryly.

" _Yeah. We've got an idea to get him angry on demand which should work. Not like that's difficult. Might lose a couple of low level mooks but they're replaceable. Once he gets involved, all we have to do is guide him in the right direction_."

"But we need the right conditions before we can do that. I don't want to waste this opportunity but I don't want to risk having it go wrong. If we can't turn it to our benefit, we'll have to walk away."

" _I realize that. All we can do is wait and watch. Sooner or later they'll move the girl._ " Victor stopped suddenly, then swore under his breath.

"Victor? What happened?" Max asked, a little concerned.

" _The other two lizards just came back,_ " his underling replied, sounding shocked. " _Gotta be teleportation, but there's some sort of Stranger power too. It was like they'd been there all along and no one noticed at first. Not just appearing out of nowhere, it's more than that. Weird as hell. It took everyone by surprise. They popped up behind Armsmaster and nearly gave him a heart attack based on how fast he turned around when the small one spoke._ "

"That's somewhat concerning," Max commented after a moment's reflection. "They have a potent mix of abilities."

" _Sure looks like that._ "

"Describe the new ones."

" _The small one is like someone tried to make a human out of a velociraptor from a movie, or something like that,_ " Victor replied. " _About… maybe six and a half feet tall, comparing it to Armsmaster. Slender, looks very strong and fast, but not heavily built. Maybe a hundred and fifty, hundred and seventy pounds. Long tail, claws on hands and feet, and wearing armor that looks like something out of a movie about Roman soldiers more than anything else. Very high quality._ "

Trying to picture the result in his head, Max nodded to himself. "And the other one?"

" ** _That_** _one is fucking lethal looking_." Victor sounded worried. " _It's on four legs, sort of like a centaur or something, you know? Torso at the front, with arms. It's_ ** _huge._** _Even on all fours it must be over eight feet tall and those front legs look like they could work as arms. The back leg structure might let it stand on two legs, which would make it nine and a half, maybe ten feet tall. And it's built like a tank, must weigh around a ton, depending on how heavy the armor is. I don't think it even_ ** _needs_** _armor, looking at the fucking thing, but it's completely covered in it, even the tail. Dark blue, almost black. The other one's armor is a slightly lighter color and has a gold symbol on the chest, this one has no markings at all._ "

He chuckled slightly uneasily. " _Its head is something out of a nightmare. The little one at least looks a bit human, in a strange way. But this one? Fuck me, it looks like it eats hobbits by the handful. You wouldn't want to turn a corner in the dark and see_ ** _that_** _staring at you, believe me..._ "

"Do they appear hostile?"

" _No. Dangerous as hell, but they're just standing there talking. The small one is doing most of it. Armsmaster looks like he's seen a ghost. Wish I could hear what they're saying… OK, that smaller one is pointing at the truck Shadow Slut is in. Now they're going that way._ " He abruptly stopped talking and sucked in a breath hard enough for Max to hear.

" _Shit._ "

"What?"

" _It might be nothing. But I could swear the big one looked right at me. And smirked._ "

Both of them were silent for a moment. "Could it have seen you?"

" _Don't see how, I'm nearly half a mile away and up high, not to mention camouflaged. But the thing was looking_ ** _right_** _at me. Kind of freaky._ "

"Did it say anything to Armsmaster or its companion?"

" _Not that I can see_ ," the other man replied, sounding a little relieved. " _It just kept walking._ "

"Good. Even so, It might be best to find another position to observe from. Just in case. We have no idea if they have enhanced senses, or whether they'd intervene if something happens. Don't take any risks."

" _I was thinking the same exact thing._ " Max could hear rustling sounds in the background. " _I know another place that will let me see what's happening. Take about ten minutes to get there, I'll contact you when I'm in position._ "

"Excellent. Good work, Victor."

" _Thanks, Max. Later_."

The connection dropped and Max tapped the button on his bluetooth headset, leaving it hooked over his ear for the moment. Sitting down on the leather sofa at one side of his office he curiously turned the TV up to see what the chattering masses were talking about. 

* * *

Reading the next report, Emily shook her head in what was almost wonder. How these three idiotic girls had managed to make it to fifteen with so little sense of self-preservation was a question for the ages. Hess herself should have realized that there was no way this would ever have ended well no matter what happened, even with Blackwell and her handler covering for her. The chances of the Hebert girl ending up crippled or dead was practically a certainty according to the technical reports, and it was only the intervention of Saurial that had prevented a likely tragedy.

Even then, the girl would need to be thoroughly examined medically since according to the initial tests, the toxic soup she'd ended up in was a real nightmare brew of hellish pathogens. She scrolled through the list of potential infectious agents that the field tests had so far detected.

Some of them even she, not a microbiologist, recognized and paled at.

It must have contained blood and other contributions from half the school. Considering the area Winslow was in, and the number of students from some fairly harsh backgrounds that attended, it shouldn't have surprised her how many different things they'd been exposed to, but it did. And all of them had ended up in the same place, merrily propagating away for a couple of weeks.

Those little idiots couldn't have come up with a more effective way of breeding superbugs if they'd _tried_. The technicians were simultaneously fascinated and horrified.

 _She_ was merely absolutely furious.

The PRT officer who was supposed to have been reporting on Sophia Hess's every movement was already an ex-PRT officer, and there would be enough charges arising from this one incident alone to keep him locked up for the next eight years. When they finished digging through his past cases, she was almost certain that would increase, since it was rare that someone like that only did it once. It was the end result of a pattern of behavior that suggested a lot of practice.

Blackwell and several of her staff were also going to face federal charges, on top of whatever the city and the state threw at them. Not one of them was ever going to work in a school again, or in a position of authority, that was definite. And in her opinion should already have been the case, as based on what had so far been discovered none of them should have been allowed anywhere near children in the first place.

God.

This was a total clusterfuck from start to finish. It embarrassed the city, the PRT, and her personally as it had happened under her watch. She'd had no idea it was going on, that was true, but she _should_ have done. And it wasn't likely that any of the people who would want to take advantage of this one way or another would miss that.

Glancing at the time, she was mildly puzzled that the Chief Director hadn't already called by now, fuming and wanting an explanation. It was helpful since it gave her more time to gather data that could be used _for_ that explanation, but it was also unusual. Normally Costa-Brown was breathing down her neck in implausibly short amounts of time after some major incident. The damn woman was famous for it. No one knew how she found things out so quickly and most of them wished she wouldn't.

She spent another forty minutes reviewing the reports which were coming in a steady stream as they got uploaded from the field units, then leaned back and rubbed her eyes with a sigh. This entire thing was a distraction from the serious work of running her post, but she couldn't ignore it. There was no way to sweep any of it under the carpet since it had all hit the public so thoroughly. The sole good point was that there were no casualties.

Yet.

Several students had tested positive for some fairly unpleasant pathogens and would require treatment. Whether they were the source of the infections in the first place was currently unknown but considering how short the incubation periods on a couple of them were it was considered unlikely. That meant that the hazmat people's worries about the biohazard spreading through the school was almost certainly valid. When the public living nearby found out about _that_ there was going to be a panic unless they moved hard and fast to proactively prevent it. She was probably going to have to go cap in hand to New Wave and request Panacea's help. Which was _not_ something she wanted to do. But without the girl's powers, and possibly even with them, everyone in sight was going to require a full course of broad spectrum antibiotics as a preventative measure.

The city administration was already running damage control exercises, which would probably cause the PRT even more troubles in the medium term as they'd get blamed. Not entirely unreasonably under the circumstances. The Mayor's office, who didn't like Emily or her people at all for a number of reasons, some of which she privately admitted were plausible ones, would undoubtedly take advantage of the whole thing to both boost their popularity and point the finger at her people. Bearing in mind how much this was going to cost to sort out, millions at least, the public was going to sit up and pay attention.

And all that paled against the possibility that one or other of the criminal elements that the city was so well provided with might take advantage of the situation in some manner. She'd ordered a step up in patrols as soon as the whole affair came to light, just in case, and the BBPD had done the same, but neither group really had enough to go around at the best of times. Luckily, at least so far, things on that front were quiet. Almost too quiet, she caught herself thinking, then felt slightly embarrassed.

The Hess family had already been moved into protective custody at a site outside the city, in case of revenge attack, or someone wanting to use them as hostages to apply pressure to Hess herself. Emily doubted the fucking girl had even considered how her actions could affect her mother and siblings when she got caught. Most likely, in her arrogance, she'd assumed she wouldn't _get_ caught and could just go on her way with a psychopathic smile. She had certainly been disabused of _that_ although Emily was unsure if it had yet sunk in. The girl wasn't quick on the uptake where it came to the concept of actions having consequences, or she wouldn't have come to their attention to begin with.

Her overall mood could be described as ' _cold fury trending towards homicidal rage_ ' by all this, but she was using every ounce of professionalism to suppress the urge to pull her service weapon and shoot holes in everything just to relieve the stress. Sooner or later, she was going to be in a room with Sophia Hess.

She could wait until then. And _probably_ wouldn't use the gun...

Muttering to herself, she looked at the time again, then frowned.

' _This is getting ridiculous_ ,' she thought. ' _Costa-Brown never takes_ ** _this_** _long to get around to yelling at people_.'

After some more consideration, and with extreme reluctance, she finally gave in and clicked the relevant icon on her screen. The video call application went through the normal security checks then started making an intermittent weebling sound. After thirty seconds with no response, she canceled the call, thought again, and tried a different person.

This time it was picked up almost immediately. " _PRT HQ, Chief Director's department. Good afternoon, Director Piggot, how may I direct your call?_ " the woman smiling at her said.

"Hello, Ms Rios," Emily replied. "I'm trying to contact the Chief Director but there's no answer on her direct line. Is she available?"

" _Let me check that for you, Ma'am,_ " the young woman said, looking to the side. There were some typing sounds. " _She isn't on site as far as I can see_ ," she added a few seconds later. More typing happened in the background. " _And she's not responding to a remote alert either. She may be in an emergency meeting. I'm not aware of one, but if it's an emergency..._ " She smiled a little.

Emily waited as the woman apparently checked a few more schedules. " _No, I can't immediately locate her, Ma'am. Her schedule doesn't list anything that would cover this time and I can't see any emergency notifications involving her. I'm sorry, something unusually urgent must have come up. I will leave a priority message on her system and keep trying. I assume it's about that nasty mess in Brockton Bay?_ "

"Yes, it was," Emily nodded, now somewhat concerned. "When you find her, please have her contact me as soon as she's available."

" _Of course, Director Piggot. Is there anything else I can help you with?_ "

"No, thank you, Ms Rios, that's all for now."

" _You're welcome, Ma'am._ "

Disconnecting the call, Emily leaned back and wondered what was going on. The Chief Director was often out of the office but this was the first time she could ever remember where the woman couldn't be found at all. Even in emergencies people normally knew where she was.

Momentarily considering that the unexplained absence of her ultimate superior might have something to do with the mess at Winslow, she shook her head. ' _I doubt that three lizards in Brockton Bay are responsible for the Chief Director being temporarily unavailable_ ,' she snorted to herself. ' _She probably had some bad fish at a meal or something._ '

Deciding that for now she wouldn't question her good fortune at not being shouted at too hard she went back to work, planning on how she was shortly going to do something similar to a very foolish girl. 

* * *

Colin stared at Saurial, who was smiling back. Beside her Raptaur was doing much the same. "You terrify them," he echoed incredulously, that specific phrase sticking in his mind.

Both nodded. Still smiling.

"The _Endbringers_ are terrified of _you_."

"Yep. Long story. Anyway, they're almost certainly not going to attack anyone while we're here. There's one thing that might cause it but I'm fairly sure that's currently not an issue."

Dragon was listening through his equipment, he knew. Hopefully he could rely on his friend to let him know if she picked up on something suspicious, as his software wasn't having any luck at all with these reptiles. Not surprisingly as it was designed around normal humans, and whatever else they were, they weren't that. It didn't work with most Case 53s either for the same reason. He was still fixating on the idea that these three lizards somehow scared the Endbringers. True, the idea fitted with Dragon's initial thoughts, but it appeared on the face of it insane. They were impressive, yes, and obviously dangerous, but the Endbringers were… Endbringers.

That name wasn't chosen lightly.

He'd seen far too many people die during battle with the damn things to consider them anything other than total destruction given physical form. No one had ever managed to do anything other than delay them until they disengaged due to too much damage. There was a theory that even there they weren't truly harmed, which tended to get borne out by the way that the next time they came they were completely intact once more. Whether there was some grand plan behind their attacks no one could agree. Some evidence suggested that the Simurgh at least was targeting specific places but the ultimate motive remained a mystery.

And only one person had ever gone one on one against an Endbringer. That had cost millions of lives, the total loss of a large part of Japan, and _still_ hadn't resulted in the destruction of the creature. Plus, he thought, it was very noticeable that Leviathan hadn't hesitated to attack even when Lung was ramped up far higher than he had ever been before or after.

Yet _all three Endbringers_ had simultaneously decided to run and hide merely because three reptilian capes had turned up out of nowhere? Ones that hadn't even really _done_ anything either.

It seemed… implausible.

He said as much.

"We'll explain a little more in a while," Saurial smiled. He was beginning to feel that smile was annoying. "First, we should do something about those three girls you've got locked up in that truck over there."

He glanced at the vehicle she pointed at and nodded. She was right, this was hardly the place to go into detailed explanations since everyone in sight was watching them closely, there were a number of news crews all too close, and that specific part of everything wasn't immediately vital. "Agreed. I assume you will remove their restraints?"

"Sure. They're not going anywhere, after all." She headed over in that direction, her apparent sister following. He went with them. Raptaur glanced off to the side for a moment then returned her attention to the vehicle as they arrived.

"Out of interest, where did you take the Heberts?" he asked as they reached it, motioning to the PRT trooper watching them cautiously to stand aside.

"To their home," Raptaur rumbled. "They needed a familiar environment. Both of them were quite upset for obvious reasons, and we felt it was better that they had some time to relax before they talk to you. We explained things to Taylor's father and left them alone to discuss things."

"We told them we'd talk to you first, then bring them to meet your Director later after we set a few ground rules," Saurial added, reaching up and opening the back of the vehicle. Colin again motioned for the man inside guarding the prisoners to stand down as he reached for his foam projector by reflex.

"Hello, ladies," the lizard-girl smiled. _This_ smile, he noted, was not a friendly one. There were teeth showing.

"Who _are_ you?" The question came from Sophia, who was glaring at the reptile, even now not looking like she realized how bad it was going to go for her and her companions. The blonde one, Madison, clearly _did_ realize and was almost catatonic with worry and fright, while the third, the Barnes girl, was pale but defiant.

Raptaur moved to stand next to her sister and all three captives focused on her. Madison squeaked in horror, Emma went stark white, and Sophia recoiled in shock.

"Let's say that the Heberts are friends of the Family," Saurial chuckled, putting a slight emphasis on the last word that Dragon noted and flagged for Colin's attention. His friend wasn't saying anything, only passing messages via his HUD, since both of them had instantly worked out that Saurial's hearing had to be exceptional if she could hear the sound of his internal comms speaker. "And leaving that out of it, I don't like bullying. Although you can't really call what you little idiots did bullying, can you? That description doesn't normally cover bio-terrorism."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sophia demanded in a wavering voice, while Emma whispered "Bio-terrorism?"

"You contaminated an entire school with a biological hazard as a deliberate act intended to bring terror and psychological harm to one or more people," Saurial replied with a shrug. "That meets most of the relevant requirements for the charge to have a decent chance of sticking. You've been steadily escalating your campaign of terror for months, so it's not like this was a one off thing either. And considering how much cleaning up will cost, plus this whole operation, there's going to be a lot of people looking for someone to blame for it." She looked hard at Sophia, who had gone an unpleasant gray color. "Guess who that's going to be?"

"We're minors, they can't..." Emma said after a few seconds of appalled silence.

"You put potentially hundreds of lives at risk with this stunt, so you better believe they can and quite likely _will_ charge you as adults," the lizard said calmly. "There are several federal organizations involved other than the PRT too. The CDC are here taking samples, the FBI will certainly turn up sooner or later… I have to say, I can't think of many things you idiots could have done to make it worse. Blowing the fucking place up probably wouldn't have attracted this much attention. I hope it was worth it, because you're all screwed."

She watched as the girls exchanged glances. Then Madison quietly fainted again, sliding to the floor in an untidy heap. Emma was staring at her hands, which were clenched tightly together, while Sophia's eyes were fixed on Saurial's.

"And you outed yourself in the process," the latter added, cocking her head a little and apparently curious. "Which was really dumb. You didn't even think about your family, did you?"

Sophia's mouth opened, a small hiss of air came out, then it closed again. Colin felt sure that was the first time the thought had crossed her mind. To her credit, as far as he could tell she did look upset about it.

"We have already moved your family out of the city, Miss Hess," he stated. "They are safe. You, however, are not."

"Nope. Not even a little," Saurial smiled, hopping up into the truck and standing looking down at all three of them. "Luckily, Taylor and her dad will be all right, and we're going to make sure no one else gets hurt by some sort of plague caused by you three. I'd say I was sorry about what's likely to happen to you, but I can't honestly do that under the circumstances."

The block of gray EDM, and the chains and manacles attached to it, silently disappeared. Colin stared. Dragon looked even more thoughtful but didn't immediately respond. Clearly whatever Shaker power was involved didn't require physical contact as Saurial was several feet from it when it vanished. He wondered what the range was.

Sophia immediately reached down to rub her leg, as did Emma. Madison was still out of it, although stirring.

"Do not attempt to escape, Miss Hess," Colin warned.

"She's not going anywhere," Saurial said, glancing at him. She pointed at Sophia's right arm, which had a familiar looking metal bracelet on it, tightly fitted to her wrist. There was another one on her left arm. The girl noticed at the same time.

"Hey!" she shouted, immediately attempting to remove the things with no success. "Get these fucking things off!"

"No. They stay." Saurial gazed at her, waiting for her to stop swearing. "The material is biologically inert so there's no health issue, and it won't cause any skin irritation. But they're not coming off until I decide they do. That might be soon, it might not be."

"You can't _do_ that," Sophia snarled, looking furious. Colin was mildly impressed that the girl still had that much fight in her. And thought it was an efficient solution to restraining her, since the evidence was that her power ignored the material, so this would prevent her simply slipping through any walls without requiring electrical countermeasures. As long as the bracelet was present, she could use her ability, but not to escape.

She seemed to have worked this out based on her expression of raw rage.

"I can and I did," Saurial replied evenly. "You didn't think it was going to be that easy, I hope?" she added, watching as Sophia tried again to remove the right bracelet, making her arm go to shadow and pulling. Again, there was no result.

Colin recorded the attempt with interest. Hannah arrived next to him, staying on the other side away from Raptaur, causing him to glance at her then go back to watching what the lizard-girl was doing.

Madison woke up and looked around, meeting Saurial's eyes and freezing. A moment later she seemed to notice that her restraints were gone and quickly shuffled as far away from the cape as she could move inside the vehicle. "I would suggest that you each think very carefully about what you're going to say when you get interviewed," Saurial said quietly, moving her gaze from one to the other. "Tell the truth. It might help. It won't make things worse, because they're about as bad as it gets already. But lying about things when there's enough evidence to prove you are will only hurt you."

She stepped out of the truck, turning to look back at the three girls, who were silent now and looking sick. Then she sighed and walked away as the first trooper closed the door again. Colin and Hannah went over to her, Raptaur silently following. "I wish things could have been different," Saurial said in a low voice, glancing at them. "But it's too late for that."

"They ruined their lives for no good reason I can determine," Colin replied. "And caused deep problems for many other people, including the Heberts. That will require punishment."

"I still can't believe what they did," Hannah commented. "Or _why_ they did it. It doesn't make sense to me at all."

"Sophia Hess has some deep psychological issues that her power only made worse, and Emma Barnes was suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome when she met her at the worst possible moment," Raptaur said, causing them to look around at the huge reptile. "Both of them require therapy, although it may well be too late to have much effect. Neither of them see what they did as wrong. Madison Clements is less involved in some respects although she was complicit in the incident. You will probably find she is ready to confess to everything if handled correctly. The other two…?"

She shrugged.

"How do you _know_ all this?" Hannah asked, staring at them.

"Again, a long story." Saurial looked to the side, as did Raptaur, and Colin noticed that Metis who had somehow joined them without him noticing was doing the same. He followed their eyes.

"Is there a problem?" he asked, somewhat concerned.

The explosion that echoed across the area moments later answered that before any of them could reply.

Events abruptly became significantly more complex.


	7. Detonation

"Oh, crap."

Amy looked at her sister's face. They were about four hundred feet up, heading towards Winslow, and she was freezing. So was Vicky judging from the shivering, her costume not really suited for this temperature, but the blonde was never going to admit to it. Even Amy's much heavier robe was letting a lot of cold air into places she'd rather not have had it, so her sister's clothing was undoubtedly much less comfortable.

After quite a lot of arguing between them the pair had changed into their costumes at the school and left, Amy still grumbling about how this was a stupid idea. Vicky airily shot down every objection she had, or simply ignored them, and of course she was never really able to turn the other girl's requests down no matter how crazy they were.

So here they were, freezing their asses off, heading towards something they hadn't been invited to so Vicky could stand around looking heroic on the news while Amy hid inside her hood and pretended she wasn't there.

Bitter? Her? Nah.

Now Vicky was slowing and dropping quickly behind one of the buildings, having apparently spotted something ahead of them. Amy hadn't seen what it was before they were too low for her to look. "What is it?" she asked.

"I think I just saw Victor climbing that old fire tower over near the dock end of the boardwalk," her sister said urgently. "I'm almost certain that's who it was. He had a bag on his back that looked like it had a rifle in it."

Amy stared at the girl, trying to mentally picture the construction she'd mentioned. "Isn't that just about the highest thing in the area?" she asked slowly.

"Yeah, it's about a hundred feet or so, and falling apart," Vicky replied. "It got abandoned years ago for some reason and no one uses it these days. I go and sit on top and watch the sunset sometimes, the view is amazing from there. You can see the Rig, and the docks, and our house just about and..."

"Winslow?" Amy added suggestively. Vicky stopped dead, looking startled.

"Uh… Yeah, it's about maybe half a mile from there, I think? Probably has a perfect view."

"A perfect view for someone with a sniper rifle who's known to be an amazing shot?" the brunette probed.

Vicky now looked worried, and angry. "Oh, shit. You think he's going to start shooting at the school? Why would even the E88 do that?"

"Maybe because Sophia Hess is black? Along with about half the students who go there?"

"Fuck." They exchanged a glance once more. "We need to stop him," Vicky said, beginning to rise again.

"Stop, Vicky!" Amy said urgently. "Think about it first. He's probably not alone, the E88 hardly ever goes out one at a time. If Victor's there, one of the others is almost guaranteed to be there too. Maybe more than one. There might be unpowered gang members too, and they're always heavily armed. If they see you and all start shooting at the same time..." She shrugged as Vicky went back to looking worried. "You're bulletproof, fair enough, but not if they hit you twice in a row in less than a second. And _I'm_ not bulletproof at all."

"And you can't heal yourself," Vicky sighed. "Hell. What do we do?"

"Check if you actually _did_ see Victor, or anyone else, climbing that tower with a gun. Then call Aunt Sarah and warn them." Amy thought for a moment or two, looking upwards at the roof of the industrial building they were currently floating behind, about twenty feet off the ground. There was no sign of anyone else in the area. "Let's go up to the roof and look _very carefully_ over the edge. Remember we're both wearing white and you can probably see us for miles in the sunlight. Not to mention you're a little obvious when you're flying anyway."

"OK, not a bad plan." Vicky gently rose, cradling her sister in her arms, until they reached the roof, which was slightly sloped and made of metal. Amy reached out and tapped it, then looked along it to where the peak was. The tower was still invisible behind it.

"Up a little more. Keep below the ridge-line."

Moments later they were level with the peak of the roof. A cautious extra foot of altitude let them see the very top of the tower in the distance about three hundred yards away. "There, see?" Vicky shuffled her sister in her arms to free one hand and pointed even as Amy yipped a little and held on harder.

"Don't drop me!"

"I won't. Look, isn't that Victor?"

Staring at the tower, Amy squinted. "It… might be."

"That sure looks like a rifle to me too."

"I'll give you that," the brunette nodded, because while she wasn't certain of the identity of the person in question, she could certainly see what seemed to be a thick gun barrel sticking out past the wall around the observation tower top. The person holding it was also in a position that suggested he was bending over to look through a telescopic sight.

"We have to stop him, whoever it is," Vicky said as they floated down again to land on the roof. She put Amy down and reached for her phone. The healer cautiously tested the surface, found it to be solid, and walked up the roof again, dropping to her knees near the top. She peered over at the tower then looked around.

"Oh, damn it, I was right," she said.

"What is it?" Vicky said from behind her. She glanced back to see her sister holding her phone and looking at her.

Amy pointed. "That's Kreig on that roof over there closer to the school. He's got a phone to his ear, he must be talking to someone. Probably either Victor or Kaiser. So that almost certainly _is_ Victor up the tower. I was right, there's more than one of them."

"You were definitely right," Vicky commented, looking in another direction. Amy followed her eyes to see the instantly recognizable forms of Crusader and Rune, both of them standing on what appeared to be a large piece of road surface, drop behind another building nearer still to Winslow than Krieg was. "Four of them."

"And we don't know for sure that there aren't more, either," Amy said, scowling. "Those three between us and the school, Victor up that tower… I bet he's being the surveillance guy. They could be planning on attacking the place." She thought some more. "But why? Half the PRT are running around there, along with a lot of cops and at least four Protectorate capes. That seems a little stupid to me. No one has ever said Kaiser's an idiot."

"There are those lizards too," Vicky commented, landing on the roof next to her sister. Both girls ducked down to make sure they wouldn't get spotted. "Who knows what _they_ can do. But maybe the E88 is after _them_ and not the school or anyone at it?"

"Why?" Amy looked at her sister. "Like you said, no one knows what they can do. An unknown Parahuman is dangerous, you never know how they'll react if they get attacked. And I didn't see anything to suggest any of them are Tinkers, which are the Parahumans the gangs most want, right?"

Vicky shrugged. "They're Nazis, who knows what the fuck they think?" she said. "Maybe they _are_ after Shadow Stalker. Or they might just want to take the opportunity to cause chaos while everyone is distracted."

"I'd have thought if that was the case they'd attack somewhere that _wasn't_ swarming with nervous armed people." Amy tugged at her lower lip, thinking. "It's weird." After a moment she dropped to her stomach and wormed her way back up the roof, flipping her hood back both to get a better view and to prevent the white cloth showing, then very carefully looked over the edge. Vicky, beside her, did the same. "He's still up there," she said. "I wish I had some binoculars so I could see what he's doing."

Vicky was peering at the tower, then at the distant location of the school, which wasn't quite visible from their position although both of them were reasonably sure where it had to be. "He's not looking at the school," she finally said.

"You sure?" Amy glanced at the girl next to her, then at the tower.

"Pretty sure, yeah. He's aiming that gun or whatever it is off to the side. Sort of over towards the docks more, but not at them."

"What's over there?" Amy racked her brain to try to remember. "Not E88 territory, that's back towards the commercial district. Merchants, maybe? Are they trying to ambush Skidmark's bunch?"

"If that's the case why are three of them nearer Winslow?" Vicky pointed out in a reasonable tone.

"Uh… I have no idea."

They exchanged a glance again. "And the Merchants are over closer to the dock worker's association place anyway, I think," the blonde added slowly. "If anything, that's probably about the right direction for the ABB areas."

"Lung?" Amy exhaled in surprise. "Why would they risk getting _him_ upset? You know if they do anything in ABB territory he's going to go crazy."

"Don't know, but as far as I can remember that's roughly the right area." They checked again, and Victor's whatever-it-was was now definitely aimed in the direction Vicky had thought, the man moving slightly up the tower as he reoriented it. "He's nuts. If he shoots Lung all he's probably going to do is _really_ piss him off."

"Maybe he's going after Oni Lee?"

"Might be."

They watched a little longer, then ducked as the distant figure moved in their general direction. "Shit, think he saw us?" Amy whispered, then felt silly. He couldn't actually _hear_ her.

"I don't think so," Vicky whispered back. "Hold on, I'll check."

Both of them had forgotten about the phone the blonde sister was still holding. She cautiously peeked over the top of the roof again, then ducked back. "He's looking towards Winslow again."

"What the _hell_ is that idiot doing?" Amy grumbled.

"Fucked if I know." Vicky shook her head.

"We need to tell the others." Amy indicated the phone in Vicky's hand.

"Oh, right. OK." Looking at it, Vicky poked an icon, then lifted it to her ear.

The explosion that occurred a second later made her yelp in surprise and toss the phone across the roof as she jumped. Amy nearly passed out from the sudden shock.

As Vicky's phone slid over the edge of the roof and shattered on the ground a second later, both of them exchanged pale-faced gazes then looked frantically around for what had blown up. 

* * *

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

The person speaking was wearing a balaclava, but otherwise was dressed in fairly ordinary work clothes, including jeans and steel toed boots. His voice was somewhat concerned.

"Look, almost all the cops in the fucking city are either at Winslow cleaning up whatever the hell happened there, or running extra patrols in the usual places. They don't have anyone left to deal with the docks, not that they normally come here anyway. And the PRT is either doing the same thing, or wandering around waiting for the E88 or the ABB to take advantage of the situation."

The other man spoke in a weary voice, as if he'd said this several times before. Which he had. He was dressed similarly to his friend, complete with balaclava.

"Yeah, yeah, I know all that. What I _meant_ is, is it a good idea to do _this_ with _that?_ " He pointed at the machine in the back of the stolen delivery van, the rear doors allowing it to be seen. Then he indicated the wall of the building at the end of the alley they'd backed into.

"Why wouldn't it be?" the second guy said as he climbed into the vehicle and started flipping switches, while looking at a couple of sheets of paper on a clipboard that had a checklist on it. The device started to hum faintly, lights coming on in various places.

"Because it's a fucking Tinker-tech ray gun, you complete lunatic!" the first one said acerbically, moving slightly further away. "Not only that, it's a ray gun _that Leet made!_ "

"Hey, his stuff usually works pretty well," his friend said, typing in a code on a keypad that folded out of the side of the hulking machine. This resulted in the hum getting louder and a sub-bass rumble starting up. More lights lit along the length of the barrel-like protrusion that stuck out of the back of the van as it extended with a whine.

"Yeah. Once. Then it kills everyone in the room."

"That only happened one time, and it was a bunch of Merchants so no one cared," the second man said dismissively. He looked at the wall, then down at the paperwork. "Hmm. Setting six, I guess."

He turned a dial five clicks, the bass rumble wavering each time, then settling down to a steady throbbing like a very large happy tiger.

"Merchants who stole one of his inventions," his friend pointed out. "Just like _you_ stole _this_ invention."

Putting his notes to one side, the man in the truck leaned out and stared at his friend. "Look, Rico, this is our big chance. Working for Über and Leet as minions is getting old. Sure, it pays well enough, and I admit they're decent guys, but we're never going to get rich running around dressed up as some video game character, are we?" He patted the purloined device next to him. "This disintegrator ray works, I've seen it. Leet thought it was too dangerous to use when he'd tested it, but it worked fine. And he won't miss it until we're on a beach in Miami with a few million bucks. You remember how much crap those two have stashed away, right?"

Rico nodded reluctantly.

"This thing was buried under all that, it's been there for nearly a year. And these are his test notes. It's simple enough to operate." The man in the van waved the clipboard at his friend. "Just set it right, turn it on, and fire. Boom, the entire wall goes away. We only need it to work once anyway."

Nodding slowly, Rico looked nervously at the thing, then turned his head to regard the wall. "And you're sure that's where the safe is?"

"Yeah, my information is good."

"Why would anyone keep ten million dollars in cash _here_ , for god's sake? It's right in the middle of one of the bad parts of the city. Why not in a bank?"

"Because banks report to the government, you idiot." The second guy shook his head sadly. "Criminals don't _put their money in the bank_. Jesus."

He pointed at the wall. "Ten feet inside that is a big safe with piles of cash in small bills. No one knows it's there. When Marquis was Birdcaged, some of his stashes were misplaced. I found the documents on that last job, and I checked. There's definitely a fucking huge safe bricked up in that place. The guys who have the workshop around the other side have no idea it's even there. And it would take about fifty pounds of dynamite to get inside, Marquis didn't buy crap safes."

"And he just left it there?" The tone was dubious again.

"Yeah, he did. There were rumors that several big villains did the same thing, stashing money in secure places no one would expect, in case they needed to run for it. I'd be surprised if Kaiser hasn't done the exact same thing. But when New Wave took the guy down, no one realized it was here, he never said anything, and it's still there. Waiting for some enterprising lads to turn up and help themselves."

Patting the machine still rumbling away, he added with a grin, "I don't have dynamite, but I've got something better. A _make-the-wall-go-away-now_ machine. We zap the place, load all the money in as quick as we can, and get the hell out of here. By the time anyone notices we'll be five hundred miles away."

"What if it goes wrong?"

"It only needs to work once, Rico. We dump it in the bay on the way out of town."

"I hope you're right, Nick."

"Of course I'm right." Nick grinned, moving back to the console on the side of the machine. "What's the worst that can happen? It doesn't work, we dump it anyway, and think of something else to do. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

He prodded the final button in the firing sequence. 

* * *

****

**" _Holy shit!_ "**

Ben hit the deck as a coruscating beam of light nearly four feet thick came out of the back wall of his mechanic's shop, passed through the four post lift which ceased to exist in a cloud of dust, hit the closed roller door and did much the same to that, then exited the building. Cowering in the inspection pit he'd rolled into when he'd somehow managed to avoid whatever the fuck it was, he put his hands over his head and waited for the loud roar that sounded like a blowtorch scaled up to the size of car to stop.

It did about four seconds later, the sudden lack of noise and light making the workshop look dim under the fluorescent lamps hanging from the ceiling. Cautiously he looked up, then very slowly stood. Gaping at the hole where his door used to be, then at the four stubs of metal that were all that was left of the lift, he opened and closed his mouth a few times.

"You were only supposed to blow the wall out, you fucking idiot!"

The shout came from behind him. He turned, still trying to say something, to see there was a matching hole in the back of the workshop. Through it, he could see two guys in balaclavas standing in front of a van that had some weird sort of machine in it, the business end pointing at him. As his ears recovered he could hear a sound like an idling motorcycle coming from the thing, matching the blinking lights in many colors he could see on it.

He gaped, wondering who they were and what they'd done.

Wait.

Two guys in balaclavas...

One larger than the other…

Obvious Tinker tech machine…

"Fucking _LEET!_ " he screamed in rage. "And you, you little shit Über. Look what you did to my workshop!"

He rushed for the large toolbox under the workbench on the left side of the workshop, slamming the lid open and grabbing for the tool he needed for the job facing him.

"What?"

Leet, who it obviously was from the size and crap disguise, turned from shouting at his partner to stare at Ben. " _I'm_ not Leet."

Not listening, and furious beyond reason at nearly being assassinated in his own fucking business by two idiot Parahuman gamers, Ben turned around and racked the action of the 12 gauge riot gun at the same time. "Try to kill me, will you?" he gibbered, aiming the weapon at them. Both of the men screamed and dived to each side as he fired.

The deer slug pinged off the top of the machine in the van, leaving a deep dent in it, then ricocheting through the roof. He worked the action once more, while the two idiots outside his building screamed again and ran. Both of them jumped into the front of the van even as he charged through the hole, firing a second time. This shot bounced off the tarmac into the underside of the vehicle. Starting with a roar the van peeled out in a cloud of smoke with him in hot pursuit, firing over and over until he ran out of ammunition. Panting, he watched the vehicle corner at speed, nearly tipping over, and head towards the docks area with a trail of multicolored sparks coming from the machine in the back which had collected at least one more slug.

Swearing up a blue streak, he stomped back down the alley at the back of his garage, stopping momentarily to look at the huge hole in the back wall, then went through it into the building.

Three steps in, he slowed, then stopped.

His head turned to the side.

Then the other side.

Then he rubbed his eyes with the hand not holding the smoking gun, and checked again.

"Jesus Christ above us all, that's a lot of money," he whispered in total shock.

Dropping the shotgun, he picked up one of the bundles of twenties, looking carefully at it. It sure looked and felt real. Peering around with steadily widening eyes, he estimated that there were easily a couple of thousand bundles exactly like it on the shelves down either side of the vault he'd not had the faintest idea lurked behind the end wall of his workshop.

So engrossed was he in staring at his new found fortune he barely registered the massive blast that echoed across the entire area about thirty or forty seconds later. He was too busy working out how to cover the holes in the front and rear of the place so he could count the cash in privacy. 

* * *

****  
"I hate you."

"Oops."

"I mean, I _hate_ you with the burning hatred of a thousand exploding suns."

"It _nearly_ worked."

"It _nearly_ **FUCKING KILLED US YOU LUNATIC!** "

Rico lunged at Nick, who tried to fend off the hands that were intent on grabbing his neck and squeezing until the juice ran out. "Hey, get off! We need to get out of here before someone turns up to see what happened."

" _YOU THINK!?_ " Rico was apocalyptically furious, and still trying to strangle his friend. Leet's machine had started making a very upsetting sound mere moments after they were out of range of the crazy man with the shotgun, and they'd both looked at each other, looked back over their shoulders at the violently sparking Tinker device, then wisely abandoned van even as they were doing forty miles an hour down the road.

It had made it about another four hundred yards before hitting a building and immediately detonating in an absolutely spectacular explosion, a column of fire rising above the surroundings and the sound nearly deafening them. There was now a crater covering the entire width of the road, and the front of the building it had hit was lying half in this. The explosion had blown both of them flat from where they'd got up to watch the van go on its way.

"WHY DO I LISTEN TO YOU, YOU FUCKWIT!" Rico raged on, shaking his friend as hard as he could. "STEALING A TINKER INVENTION IS SUICIDE. ESPECIALLY SOMETHING **LEET** MADE!"

"It worked, though, right?" Nick tried, managing to wriggle free and backing warily away. "Made a hole just like it was supposed to." He ducked a swing from his friend, adding thoughtfully, "I think setting six was a little high, though. Probably should have used four."

" _AARRRGH!_ " Rico looked wildly around, grabbed a piece of pipe that was lying in the gutter, and swung it at Nick, who ducked again.

"Look, I understand you're upset, Rico, but we're alive so it's all good."

He ducked yet again.

Then he looked past Rico at the site of the crater and paled. "Oh shit."

"Oh shit? _Oh SHIT!?_ " Rico tried to stab him with the pipe.

Nick pointed past him. The smaller man looked over his shoulder for a moment, looked back at Nick, registered what he'd seen, and looked over his shoulder again.

"Oh, _shit!_ " he squawked, dropping the pipe.

Both men stared in horror at the couple of dozen ABB gang members who were watching the pair, each of them armed well enough to fight a small war. They exchanged a horrified glance then without another word turned and bolted.

A mass roar of rage came from the growing gang of ABB, who charged after them, firing manically. 

* * *

****  
"What the hell was that?" Rune turned and looked behind her as the echoes of the sudden explosion faded away. She'd nearly lost control of the slab of concrete she was flying, which would have dumped both her and Crusader thirty feet to the road.

"An explosion," the man standing next to her said. She gave him a look, then sighed.

"Really? I was wondering. Thanks."

As they watched, two men wearing balaclavas came tearing around a corner a couple of blocks from where her flying piece of masonry was tucked against an abandoned warehouse and pelted down the road towards them at high speed. They exchanged a glance.

"Über and Leet?"

"Too short for Über," Crusader said. "Smaller one _might_ be Leet."

The men kept running, and moments later the reason for their haste became apparent as a wave of heavily armed ABB members poured around the corner. A couple of them yelled, pointing, and a number opened fire on their quarry.

"Fuck me," Rune said in a high voice as a number of rounds whined past. She raised the concrete platform abruptly, causing Crusader to stumble.

"Watch it," he snapped. Then he looked at where they were. "Stay below the roof line," he added quickly.

"Fuck that, those Asian shits are shooting at us," she replied with anger.

"They're shooting at those two, not us," he said, pointing.

One of the pursuing ABB looked up, then yelled. Instantly a couple of dozen guns were aimed at the two E88 members.

"You were saying?" Rune howled, frantically producing an orbiting cloud of debris to intercept the massed fire. One round nicked her arm, making her cry out, then swear violently, before returning fire with a handful of gravel.

"Don't engage them yet," Crusader shouted. An AK-47 round bounced off the building behind them and hit him in the shoulder. "On second thought, fuck the orders. Kill those scum."

"With pleasure," Rune growled, taking aim again. Her companion started manifesting his ghosts and sending them into battle.

Of course, just as they thought they had the literal upper hand, Oni Lee appeared next to them on the slab of concrete, handed her a grenade, and jumped off the platform. Rune screamed and threw the thing she'd taken without even thinking about it in her shock, then dropped flat as it exploded fifty feet away. Shrapnel whined past, a couple of pieces leaving holes in her back but apparently doing relatively little damage.

Even so, the shock was so sudden she lost control of the platform and they both plunged downwards. 

* * *

****  
"I swear I'm going to kill you in your sleep, you total fucker," Rico muttered, staying low as he and Nick shuffled along behind a wall, heading towards an open storm drain. "Slowly, with a huge smile on my face. I'll take a photo and put it next to my bed so I can look at it every night before I go to sleep. It'll make me feel warm inside."

"Shut up and come on, you asshole," Nick said in a low voice, peeking around the end of the wall. "They're all shooting at those E88 capes. Hold it… Now! Come on, run, will you?" He dashed for the storm drain and dived through the opening. Rico followed, feeling a moment of free fall that ended in a splat.

There was relative silence for a few seconds.

"Nick?"

"Yeah, Rico?"

"I really am going to kill you. A lot. Then I'll pay Panacea to bring you back so I can kill you all over again."

"You think she can raise the dead?"

"If I pay her enough, sure."

"Interesting theory." Gunfire from above echoed around the storm drain.

"I hate you so much."

"I know, Rico. I know." Nick produced a small flashlight and turned it on, then waved it around. "That way, I think." He got up, wiped off as much of the goop covering him as he could, and started walking. Rico did the same, coming up behind him.

"If you weren't my brother, I'd make it hurt more."

"I know, Rico."

"Mom _told_ me never to listen to one of your ideas."

"Mom always liked you best."

"There are a _lot_ of reasons for that..."

Complaining and bickering, the pair kept trudging through the mud, as the battle they'd accidentally sparked faded behind them. 

* * *

****  
"Now what?" Victor muttered, swinging the telescope fitted with a shoulder stock around towards the sound of the huge explosion he'd heard moments ago. There was a huge cloud of weirdly colored smoke forming an impressive sight high in the air, and through the scope he could see a large crater in the street about a quarter mile from Winslow. As he watched, a large number of people dressed in ABB colors came out of the building immediately next to the crater, looking dazed and very unhappy. More of them exited the one next to it. All were holding weapons.

They stopped, staring at something further down the street. He panned the scope that way and saw two familiar figures. "Oh, for fuck's sake, what have those two idiots done _this_ time?" he sighed. The Tinker and his friend were a pain in the ass at the best of times, but why did they have to pick _now_ to start playing around?

The two men turned and ran for their lives, the ABB gang following waving their guns and shooting at them. Somehow neither of them was hit, the entire collection disappearing around a corner and out of his view. He tracked the estimated position of the mobile battle until he spotted something that made him swear again.

" _Damn_ it!" he groaned, watching as Rune raised her platform suddenly, then started firing chunks of rubble downwards at the street. Presumably the ABB chasing the pair of idiots had spotted his compatriots and opened fire on them.

Reaching for his phone he hit the speed dial button for Crusader's number, still looking through the scope. Moments later he twitched as Oni Lee appeared on the platform next to Rune, literally handed her a grenade, then dropped out of sight. The girl had thrown the grenade away almost the instant he'd produced it, but the explosion was far too close for safety.

Watching the concrete slab drop forty feet to the ground and vanish behind the buildings made him stare in shock, swear violently, and quickly call Krieg.

"Rune and Crusader are under attack by the ABB," he said as soon as the other man answered. "Rune was taken out by Oni Lee. I don't know if she's alive, I can't see from this angle."

" _Oh, hell,_ " the other E88 man replied in shock. " _What do we do?_ "

"Go fuck up the ABB," Victor growled. "This plan is done, the PRT can't possibly have missed that fucking huge explosion. They'll be calling in troops from all over the city. Probably air support soon too. We need to get our people and get out. Let the ABB take on the PRT if they want, but Max will kill us if we get sucked into this."

" _Fine, I agree. I'll get over there. Call Max and let him know, get some backup as quick as possible, then come and help_."

"All right. Better hurry, no telling if Lung will turn up."

" _Check with the spotter at his place._ "

"Will do."

Both of them hung up, then Victor dialed the number of his replaceable ABB surveillance guy, who was stationed on a roof about three blocks from the gang leader's base. It rang several times, but wasn't answered. Swearing to himself, he tried again with the same result.

"Balls," he snarled, giving up and dialing Max. "We have a problem," he stated when his superior answered.

" _Which is?_ "

"Which is that Über and Leet fucked up one of their _idiotic_ games, blew up an ABB safe house, then led the entire gang right to Rune and Crusader like they did it on purpose. Rune is down as far as I know, not sure about Crusader. Krieg's gone to help. I can't get hold of my spotter so it's possible Lung is on the way. Oni Lee is already on site. The plan is fucked, no way we can get to Shadow Stalker now."

" _Ah_." Kaiser sounded thoughtful. " _How awkward._ "

"To put it mildly. We need to get our people out as fast as possible before the PRT turns up."

" _Difficult with both our fliers out of commission_ ," Max replied. " _I'll get Hookwolf and Stormtiger headed in your direction in one of the armored cars._ "

"Send them to the junction of..." Victor looked through the scope for a moment, then worked out the rough address. "…North Bay Road and Feeder Street. They won't have trouble finding it from there. I can hear the shooting from where I am."

There was silence for ten or fifteen seconds. " _They're on the way, ETA about seven minutes. You'd better get out of there before a PRT aircraft spots you. I can see people running around on the Rig helipad, they'll be launching soon_."

"Got it."

He disconnected, then swiveled around to point his scope at the Protectorate base. Sure enough, there were people scurrying around on the flight platform preparing two VTOL aircraft, and when he looked towards the PRT building, he could see another one being started on the roof there too. Inside fifteen minutes this entire area was going to be covered with capes and troopers.

He'd be lucky to even make it over to where his team-mates were by then, but the Empire never left one of their own behind for the animals to maul. He had to do what he could.

Quickly sticking the scope back into its bag, he slung it over his back, made sure it was secure, then started rapidly descending the rickety tower ladder, hoping it wouldn't fall apart on the way down. He was in a hurry but not _that_ much of one. 

* * *

Amy shaded her eyes and peered towards the sound of the blast, watching with amazement as a cloud of multi-colored smoke, lit from below, rolled into the sky like a particularly good special effect. "Holy shit, what was _that?_ " she gasped.

"No idea at all," her sister said, equally stunned. "Damn big whatever it was."

"Something to do with the E88 maybe?"

"Don't know, but why would they go and nuke the place if they're trying to be sneaky?" Vicky asked. Amy shrugged.

"Maybe it's some sort of diversion?"

"Pretty stupid diversion, half the city heard that. And probably saw it. The PRT are sure to turn up quickly."

"That might be the whole idea," Amy pointed out. Her sister looked at her, then back at the dissipating cloud, before nodding a little.

"I guess. But it seems weird even for them. And that's right in the middle of the ABB area… Wait a minute! I bet they did that to get the ABB running around, so the PRT will go after _them_."

"Leaving the school with less people, perhaps?" Amy added. They looked at each other, then back at the nearly vanished cloud. "We need to call Aunt Sarah right now."

"Yeah." Vicky looked at her hand, then patted her costume. "Where's my phone?"

Amy looked down, then over at the edge of the roof to one side. Walking carefully across the sloping surface, she peered down. "Um..."

Vicky floated over, followed her gaze, and groaned. "Oh, no! I only got that a week ago." She quickly flew down and retrieved the device, rejoining Amy on the roof. Both of them looked at it.

"Shit."

"I'll use mine," Amy said, pulling her much older phone out of her pocket and prodding the wake button. The phone screen lit, then as she tapped the relevant contact, produced a low battery icon and died seconds later. "Ah. Fuck."

"You have to be kidding me, Ames." Vicky grabbed the phone and fiddled with it. "Oh, for god's sake. What are the odds it would pick right _now_ to run out of power?"

"About a hundred percent," Amy shrugged. "Seeing as how it actually did. _Now_ what do we do?"

The sounds of massed gunfire made both of them look in the direction it was coming from. Not seeing anything, they hastily headed up the roof and peeked over. "Shit, did you see that? _"_ Vicky asked in surprise.

"What?"

"Oni Lee just took out Rune, I think," her sister said, pointing. "That big piece of road or whatever it was with her and Crusader just dropped like a stone."

"Appropriately enough," Amy couldn't help saying, provoking a snicker from her sister.

"Yeah. Might be two E88 down. Can't say I'd miss them."

"What about the other two?" Amy looked at the tower. "Victor's still up there, I think he's looking at where Rune was."

"Krieg's gone," Vicky reported. "Can't see him anywhere."

"Must have gone to help his friends," Amy suggested. They listened to the shooting, which was getting more vigorous by the minute, and was now mixed with louder explosions that were presumably Oni Lee and his grenades. "They must still be alive, the ABB wouldn't still be shooting if they weren't, right?"

"That seems reasonable," Vicky nodded. "I wonder if they'll get backup?"

"I'd guess that Victor probably called Kaiser, or Krieg did, so it's likely."

Her sister looked back at the fire tower. "Hey, Victor's climbing down. I bet he's going to help too."

Amy gazed in that direction, then nodded. "Probably."

After a moment, the blonde said, "We can take him."

"What?"

"You didn't want me to go after him in case he had backup. His backup is kind of busy right now..."

They exchanged a long look, then as one turned to stare at Victor, who was only about twenty feet up now. "I should probably be trying to persuade you that's a bad idea, but for some reason I can't," Amy finally said.

Vicky grinned.

"But…" Amy held up a hand. "I want to do it my way. You remember the last time? I don't want to be putting someone back together in an alley because you nearly punched his head off again."

"Oh… whatever. Let's just grab him and take him to Aunt Sarah," Vicky smiled. "I bet that surprises her."

"Probably," Amy agreed. "It's Mom I'm more worried about."

Vicky stood up. "We can handle that later. Let's go snag a Nazi. My collection is missing one."

With an unaccustomed sense of adventure, Amy let her sister pick her up even as she was wondering why all of a sudden she wanted to see what she could do that wasn't healing. 

* * *

"Hey!"

Victor, who had just stepped off the last rung of the rusty ladder onto the roof of the squat abandoned fire station, froze at the sound of the chirpy voice, then spun, one hand grabbing at his pistol. He had it ready to fire by the time he was facing the speaker, who made his stomach lurch when he saw who it was.

"Hi, Victor," Glory Girl said with a pretty smile. "Fancy meeting you here. Have you met my sister?"

"What the…?" he managed even as he felt a hand touch his neck.

The world went black before he could finish the question. 

* * *

"Well, that was easy," Amy said with a sense of surprise, looking at the unconscious form slumped at her feet. "And kind of fun."

"It was also really cool," Vicky giggled. "' _Have you met my sister.'_ Boom. Down he goes."

The brunette snickered, kneeling to check the status of the villain. He was totally out of it and she made sure that would stay the case until she turned him back on again.

"Now what? I don't particularly want to ride a Nazi all the way to Winslow," she said. Vicky burst out laughing, making her smile ruefully. "Not the way I mean it, Vicky, you know that."

"It was the tone of your voice," her sister giggled. "Well, we can't leave him here. He might escape."

"He's not going anywhere, trust me on that," Amy assured the other girl. "He's down for the count."

"Great. But I still don't want to leave him lying around. It's untidy."

"Can we get cited for littering by carelessly discarding unconscious racists?"

"No idea."

They looked at each other and grinned. "If we had some rope I could carry him that way, I guess," Vicky went on, peering around.

"What about that bag on his back? We could use the straps from that, maybe?"

"Worth a try."

Both of them knelt down on the gravel covered roof, Vicky rolling the man over while Amy retrieved the bag. She unzipped it, looking inside curiously. "Huh. Not a gun, it's a really high tech telescope thing with a stock like a rifle," she reported, pulling the optical device out and looking at it. "Cool."

"Expensive too," Vicky nodded. "Nice toy. Want it?"

Amy looked at her sister in surprise, then down at the scope. She inspected it with an evaluating eye. "Spoils of war," she decided with a grin.

"Exactly. We take the bad guys down, then loot their goodies."

"Don't for god's sake say that where Mom can hear," Amy warned with a smirk. "She'd explode worse than whatever that thing was." Vicky nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Oh. Loot. Find his phone." They quickly patted Victor down, coming up with a very high end smartphone. "Is it unlocked?"

"Yep. Hang on, I'll call Aunt Sarah."

"OK. Ooh, he's got some rope in this bag. Perfect."

Two minutes later, Vicky lifted off with the man dangling from a quickly improvised harness from one hand, while Amy was cradled in her arms. The brunette had the acquired bag over her shoulder and was talking on the phone they'd found. "Honest, Aunt Sarah, we've got Victor with us. We'll be there in a minute." 

* * *

Lowering her phone, Sarah looked blankly at it.

"Was that Amy?" Mark asked.

"Yes. She and Vicky are coming here."

"Why? They're supposed to be in school."

"Apparently they decided to come and help, and captured Victor on the way."

She looked at her husband, who stared back. "I have no idea. They should be here shortly, they were fairly close. She said that all the excitement has something to do with the E88."

Both of them turned to watch the PRT and BBPD people running around like lunatics, readying weapons. Not that far off they could hear a lot of gunfire and intermittent explosions heading their way as whatever it was grew. The three reptilian capes who had kicked this entire thing off were standing in an island of calm with Armsmaster and Miss Militia, looking in the direction all the fuss was coming from. None of the lizards looked worried, although they did appear determined.

When a horribly familiar roar sounded from far too close, she noticed that they were the only people who _didn't_ visibly react with concern. All they did was exchange small smiles.

For some reason, those smiles made her shiver just a little.


	8. Fight

Once the echoes of what was obviously a very substantial explosion died away and everyone who had frozen at the sound recovered, the entire area became even more a hive of activity than it had been up until now. The senior BBPD officer on site started barking orders, the cops hastily rushing around and directing the public to leave in the opposite direction post haste. Most of them followed orders, with only a few being difficult. The news teams were among these, cameras all panning around to try to see what had happened.

At the same time, the PRT people quickly readied their weapons, two transports opening up to allow access to more foam projectors, grenade launchers, and heavier weaponry with more lethal intent. Everyone could hear distant gunfire, quickly becoming less distant. Troopers grabbed equipment and checked it over, while the students and staff that had been processed so far were bundled into a fleet of armored vehicles for their own protection. There were a few screams and episodes of panicked flailing, but the majority of them appeared to quickly get the idea and cooperate.

Hannah looked around, her power manifesting a riot gun in her hand without her thinking much about it. Assault and Battery were heading towards her, while the New Wave people had spun around to stare in the direction of the blast. Laserdream was already rising above the buildings to apparently get a view on what the cause was, her mother calling instructions to her from the ground.

"What was _that?_ " she said rhetorically. "It sounded like it was coming from towards the docks."

"A significant explosion," Colin replied in a slightly absent voice which suggested he was talking to Dragon as well. She was familiar with the signs. "Approximately six hundred yards away to the south-east. The acoustic signature is consistent with a high density power supply containment system catastrophically failing. Almost certainly Tinker Tech. Possibly Leet's work."

"Oh, for god's..." She gritted her teeth. "Why would those two lackwits be out causing problems right now?"

"They have a certain sense of timing which is… problematic," he replied calmly. "However, the gunfire is clearly _not_ them. The sounds are mostly AK derivatives, implying ABB weapons, as they are the most common users of such guns in the city."

A louder bang rolled over them. "Fragmentation grenade. Oni Lee's work, I suspect."

"It's coming this way," she said, listening. "They're firing on the move. At least a couple of dozen combatants."

"Presumably chasing Über and Leet," he replied, nodding. More grenade blasts were heard. "And the continued action suggests they haven't caught them yet."

"It's not Über and Leet," Saurial, who they'd almost forgotten about for the moment, said. Both Protectorate capes looked at the lizard girl. "Pretty sure it was one of Leet's widgets that went up, but he didn't do it."

"How do you know?" Colin asked curiously. She tapped her nose.

"No scent of them that close."

They stared at her. "You can _smell_ them _that_ far away?" Hannah asked incredulously.

"Oh, yes, that's easy." Saurial smiled. "We have _really_ good senses." She faced into the light breeze that was blowing from the general direction of the commotion and sniffed. "Yep. No Über and Leet. Oni Lee for sure, and some E88. Rune, Crusader and Kreig definitely. Victor maybe…?"

Raptaur nodded next to her sister. "He's there, but not in the same area."

Hannah glanced at Colin, who met her eyes, then both looked at the lizards again. That was incredible if true, and she had no reason to doubt it. A thought struck her that made her pale a little. If they could identify people by scent from a quarter of a mile away, what _else_ could they tell…?

Metis winked at her, but said nothing, which didn't make her worry less.

The gunfire got louder and closer, and more grenades went off. She turned to check on the progress of clearing the civilians out. All the people from the school were now either in the armored vehicles, or back in the main building, with troopers guarding both locations and looking ready for action. Battery was glowing brightly, fully charged, and Assault was cracking his knuckles. Beyond them, Lady Photon was speaking on the phone, looking confused as far as Hannah could see.

Moments later the woman lowered her phone, said something to her husband that seemed to surprise him, then everyone flinched as the sound of an enraged Lung came from far too close.

"Oh, hell," she muttered, her riot gun switching out for something heavier. "Absolutely perfect. Nothing like a pissed rage-dragon to make things exciting."

Colin had pulled his halberd from his back and snapped it open, armored fingers working small controls. "If he hasn't ramped up too far we stand a chance of taking him down if we act quickly," he said firmly. "Otherwise we will need to fight a delaying action to allow the area to be evacuated."

Hannah nodded. She was watching the news teams frantically pile equipment and people into the trucks, then rapidly retreat down the road past the school. Almost every bystander left had run at the sound of Lung expressing his displeasure, even the hard-core Brocktonites knowing it was best to be _anywhere_ other than where he was when he was in a mood.

That left only the cops, who were taking cover behind their vehicles and pointing an impressive collection of firearms in the direction the battle sounds were coming from, and the PRT, who were doing much the same. The transports containing students had been moved to the far side of the school grounds and positioned behind several other vehicles to give them as much protection as possible, but there wasn't time to clear all the cars and trucks that were blocking the main entrance to allow them to leave the area completely.

The CDC people who had turned up a little while ago were looking worried at the entrance to the school, two of them still in the protective gear. She saw a PRT sergeant dash over and point to the building, obviously ordering them to shelter inside. Since the place was solidly made, it was definitely safer than being in the open. The men disappeared back into the school and the sergeant returned to his squad.

By now the running battle was only a block or so away based on the sound. A flash of white caught Hannah's attention and she looked up and to the side to see Glory Girl fly over the school and descend towards the ground, aiming for her aunt. "Oh, lord, just what we needed," she sighed. A second later, she realized something. "Is… that's _Victor_ dangling under her! What…?"

The girl was carrying Panacea too, the healer having what looked for all the world to be a rifle case over her back, while the E88 cape was trussed up with rope and being carried around like a handbag. Everyone watched as she carefully dropped him on the ground from a foot up, then landed and put her sister down. They started talking to Lady Photon, Glory Girl waving her arms and smiling widely.

Hannah and Colin exchanged a look once more, then both headed over to see what was going on _now_. She was dimly aware that all three lizards were following almost entirely silently.

* * *

"What on earth are you _doing,_ Vicky?" Sarah asked her niece, who looked somewhat pleased with herself.

"We came to help, of course," the girl smiled. "We heard about this at school and I thought you might need backup."

"You didn't stop to consider that if we'd wanted you here we'd have _asked?_ " she sighed.

"That's what _I_ said," Amy put in. She was, despite her words, smiling too. "But when has common sense ever worked on Vicky?"

"That's fair," Crystal, who had landed to see what was happening, snickered. Vicky shot her cousin a betrayed look which made both Crystal and Amy laugh.

"Oh, thanks very much, Crys," the younger blonde grumbled.

"Any time. Where did you find _him?_ " Crystal pointed at the totally unconscious Nazi lying in a heap on the ground.

"Up a tower watching things," Amy replied. She patted the bag on her back. "With a really cool telescope."

Sarah gazed at both girls, slowly shaking her head. "So you decided to knock him out and bring him along?" she asked Vicky. The girl grinned more widely and nudged her sister's shoulder.

"Nope. Sis took him down, I just distracted him."

Everyone looked at Amy, who seemed slightly embarrassed by the attention but also somewhat proud. " _You_ took down Victor?" she managed to ask incredulously.

"I did." Amy smiled brilliantly, making her look much happier than she normally was. "It was simple enough, he never expected it."

Crystal snickered. "He'll never live it down, either, being taken out by the healer."

"Oh, god. What is your mother going to say?" Sarah rubbed her forehead. "You know what she's like."

"Sure, but she wasn't there and we were," Vicky replied, putting her arm around her sister's shoulders. "Ames came up with a good plan right from the start, it all worked perfectly, and now we have a Nazi."

"And a cool telescope," Amy added, patting the bag again. "I've always liked looking at the stars."

"You're… looting him and keeping his equipment?" Neil asked, before he started laughing. "Oh my god. Carol is going to go nuts." Sarah fixed him with a glare that did nothing. "Can I be there when she finds out?"

"If he can't hang on to his toys he doesn't get to keep them," Amy shrugged. Sarah wondered how this day could get weirder. When even the brunette girl was jumping villains, it was already pretty damn strange.

Miss Militia and Armsmaster arrived next to them, followed by those three reptiles, who were even more impressive close up. The one on four legs was _enormous_ , she thought as she stared up at it. Amy and Vicky turned around as they heard the capes stop, Armsmaster's power armor being fairly obvious even over the sound of the constant battle raging in the background and coming closer.

Then they gaped, their eyes steadily rising, until they met those of each lizard in turn.

"Hi, girls," Saurial smiled. Amy stared while Vicky froze in shock at the sight of all the teeth.

"Um..." Even Vicky seemed lost for words. Armsmaster looked at both of them, then the lizards, visibly decided it wasn't relevant, and opened his mouth.

"I am impressed that you managed to capture Victor, Miss Dallon," he said. "I hope he is undamaged. You have something of a reputation for excessive force at times although I believe you mean well."

Miss Militia looked at her colleague and appeared to suppress a sigh.

Vicky snapped out of her minor daze and scowled. "Hey! I didn't do anything."

"This time," Amy mumbled, making her sister poke her.

"Amy got him. I just brought him here."

Both heroes looked at Amy, slightly skeptically. " _You_ defeated Victor, Panacea?"

Straightening up, Amy nodded firmly. "I did. He didn't expect me and I basically shut down his consciousness. He's fine, no damage at all, and he won't wake up until either I do it on purpose or about twenty four hours passes."

Another roar from the ongoing battle made everyone in sight twitch. Armsmaster looked past them, then back to Amy. "I am impressed, Panacea. Clearly you have more combat ability than I realized. I apologize if I offended you, I meant no insult but you have never done this before."

"It's been a strange day," Amy said.

"Agreed."

After a moment, the brunette seemed to remember something and put her hand into her robe's pocket, retrieving a cellphone. "You might find this helpful," she said, handing it to the Tinker. "It's his. Not locked."

Armsmaster accepted it and looked at it with a small smile. "That is exceptionally useful, Panacea. Thank you." Putting it away in his armor, he added, "I expect it contains information of interest to us."

"Do you know what started all that?" Miss Militia asked, motioning towards the sounds of fighting.

"We're not sure," Vicky said, glancing at her sister. "We were on our way here when we spotted Victor climbing that old fire tower. I wanted to grab him but Amy said he'd probably have backup and we should make sure if that was true, then phone it in. So we stopped and scoped out the area."

Between them, they quickly recounted their story. The mobile fight appeared to have halted about a block away, the sounds very loud now. Sarah was wondering if the fucking ABB would ever run out of ammo…

"Then we got Victor, grabbed all his stuff, and came here," Vicky summed up. "Rune and Crusader were down and we didn't see them again, but I guess they're probably still in action since the ABB didn't stop shooting the shit out of everything. Krieg disappeared and we lost sight of him. And we didn't see anyone else."

"There were some people in the street running in that direction who might have been E88," Amy added. Her sister nodded.

"Yeah, I did spot a couple of guys, but no more capes."

"Thank you, that clarifies the situation slightly," Armsmaster said when they stopped. "It is useful data. We have positive confirmation of at least six Parahuman villains, and the evidence suggests a large number of unpowered individuals."

Yet another grenade blast went off, causing echoes to bounce around the place.

"Well, are we going to stop it?" Vicky was bouncing on her toes.

Glancing at her phone, Sarah was surprised to see that the explosion had only been about seven minutes ago. It seemed much longer but then it usually did when there was a lot of combat happening, even if you weren't directly involved. Hearing the sound of thrusters, she looked up to see a PRT VTOL aircraft soar overhead from the direction of the Rig, then start orbiting a spot about three hundred yards away.

Miss Militia put a finger to her ear. "Lung is ramped up to about ten feet tall at this point, and there are at least fifteen casualties so far," she reported, apparently listening to the aircraft crew. "Oni Lee is engaging Krieg, and Hookwolf and Stormtiger have joined the fight. They're trying to take down Lung. Rune is back in action but appears injured, and there's no sign of Crusader. Approximately one hundred gang members, both ABB and E88, are present, with more coming from several directions."

"Good lord, it's turning into complete gang war," Neil muttered. The military cape nodded soberly.

"It's heading that way. If the Merchants turn up, it'll become total chaos. We need to shut this down as fast as we can."

"We'll gladly help," Sarah said.

"Thank you, we may need it. If Lung isn't sto..."

She was interrupted by another enormous explosion, much larger than a grenade, coming from only just outside the school grounds, no more than two hundred and fifty feet away. Everyone whirled around just in time to see Hookwolf come flying over the fence trailing smoke and smash into the concrete on their side of it, bounce a couple of times, then slide to a halt. He roared in rage and climbed to his feet, fully in his bladed metal wolf form, then charged back into the fray right through the fence.

A rocket flew overhead, dropping behind the school with another detonation. "Jesus Christ!" one of the PRT troopers shouted. His companions were all pointing foam guns in the direction the E88 cape had come from and two of the armored vehicles had the roof mounted cannon aimed that way as well.

"What the hell did _that?_ " Crystal yelped.

"Oni Lee has a rocket launcher and he's spamming clones all over the place with them," Miss Militia replied in shock. Several more missiles rained down immediately after she spoke, luckily all of them overshooting the area. He was clearly not aiming at them, but something else.

It had all escalated so quickly that everyone was having trouble coping. Dozens of huge explosions occurred in seconds, one rocket landing outside the school gate and taking out a police car. The occupants had barely managed to run in time, and one of them was clearly caught by the shrapnel.

"Shit, look!" Amy pointed upwards, causing them to turn. The orbiting PRT aircraft was diving groundwards trailing smoke, having apparently been hit by a rocket. A whoosh and a gust of wind heralded Vicky shooting off after it without hesitation, a moment later coming up under the machine and grabbing it. They watched in amazement as she managed to slow it and redirect its fall to a point outside the school area.

"Thank god," Sarah breathed. "Good work, Vicky."

Miss Militia exhaled heavily. "Remind me to thank your niece, Lady Photon. That was very well done."

Just as Sarah was going to reply, a building a hundred and fifty feet away exploded in flames and crumbled.

They all stared in horror at the fifteen foot tall form of a heavily ramped and totally furious Lung that stomped through the rubble, the heat radiating from him easily felt even this far away. At the same time this happened, a colossal increase in the battle sounds preceded a wave of people waving guns and shooting at each other rounding the corner of the street and heading in their direction, Rune floating off to one side inside a dumpster with no lid, only her head and shoulder exposed. A vast collection of small debris was orbiting her, intercepting shots heading her way then pelting the ABB below.

Hookwolf was charging towards Lung, Stormtiger was standing on a roof on the other side of the road engaged in battle with Oni Lee, who in turn was producing clones which were firing rockets and tossing grenades like it was going out of style, and bringing up the rear were at least fifty armed E88 gang members, all shooting at anything that wasn't them. Bullets whined overhead and smashed windows in the school, from which screams of horror were coming.

Everyone hit the deck, even Armsmaster, as a rocket came through the school gate about four feet off the ground and detonated on a thankfully empty vehicle parked near the school, blowing all its windows out and leaving the remains burning merrily.

Sarah covered her head as debris rained down from another one hitting the concrete fifty feet away and excavating a large crater in a fireball.

"This is getting out of hand," a voice said. She looked up to see Saurial, Raptaur, and Metis standing where they'd been, looking around like they were grocery shopping.

"Yeah," Metis replied. "Better stop it, I suppose."

"It's too noisy anyway," Raptaur nodded. She looked at her sister and cousin. "Want to deal with Hookwolf while I sort out Lung?" she asked Saurial.

"OK. Metis, you go stop those gangers."

"On it."

Sarah, her family, and the Protectorate capes, along with all the PRT and BBPD personnel, watched in shock as Saurial and Raptaur disappeared and Metis faded from view. Only seconds later, the shock turned into disbelief at what happened next.

* * *

Alan, still dazed by what Miss Militia had told him about the actions of his youngest daughter, and wishing he could disbelieve her even though she had enough proof that he couldn't, covered his ears as another loud blast rang through the armored vehicle he'd been directed too. Half a dozen other civilians were cowering inside it as shrapnel pinged off the side facing the battle. The PRT trooper who was in the cab was talking on a radio, ignoring them all.

When the rain of fragments stopped, Alan rose a little from his seat and looked out one of the small and extremely thick portholes in the side of the thing, one of half a dozen that ran in a line along each wall. Through the visibly green-colored glass he could see Armsmaster and Miss Militia talking to some members of New Wave with those three reptilian Parahumans standing listening.

When Lung himself suddenly appeared under a hundred yards away as the building he'd destroyed fell down and burst into flames at the same time, he felt his heart nearly stop.

' _Emma's in one of these trucks,_ ' he thought in dismay, looking at the vehicles near the one he was in. There was a line of others between them and the action, providing some protection, but he knew enough to know that this wouldn't stop the ABB cape if he decided to come this way.

Everyone else who was watching held their breath as Lung looked around, his form covered in gleaming metallic scales and no longer even slightly human, then roared again. The sound could, with enough imagination, be considered speech, but it was so distorted as to be entirely incomprehensible. Wreathed in flames and wavering in the heat, he turned and smashed his way back through the now violently burning remains of the building and returned to the battle on the other side of it.

"Oh, thank god," one woman, a teacher he vaguely recognized, said weakly.

More or less ignoring her, Alan kept watching. The three lizards had a brief conversation, not looking particularly worried, then two of them simply vanished and the third one, the large black one that had been there when he'd arrived, sort of wavered and became transparent, fading from view until all he could see was the tiniest of distortions. This shot towards the nearest wall and disappeared over it.

"Holy..." he mumbled, looking around for any signs of any of them. "Amazing."

Almost immediately, things went weird.

* * *

Staring fixedly at the screens in the operations center, which were showing a mix of video feeds from troops on the ground, various vehicles, and the two remaining aircraft above the all out minor war going on almost on top of Winslow high school, Emily watched as things became even more confused.

"VTOL-2 reports no casualties, Director," one of the console operators said. "Glory Girl intercepted them on the way down and gave them a soft landing, about four hundred yards from the battle zone. The aircraft is non-serviceable but the crew are safe. They're evacuating towards the school with Glory Girl providing cover."

"Good." She nodded, not taking her eyes off the displays. "Finally that girl does something useful."

"VTOL-3 is picking up something strange going on, ma'am," another operator said, his hand on his earpiece. He tapped a couple of controls. "Screen nine."

She looked at the relevant display, then squinted a little. "Can you zoom in on the upper left quadrant?"

He didn't reply but did something with his console, the result being the image expanded towards the top left corner, becoming slightly lower resolution in the process. "What _is_ that?" she asked after a couple of seconds. There was a barely visible distortion moving through the smoke and dust in the middle of the largest collection of ABB and E88 gangers. As it did, the fighting gang members were keeling over one by one for no obvious reason, guns dropping from their hands. She couldn't tell if they were unconscious or dead.

"I'm not sure, Director," the second operator said. "Neither is VTOL-3. There's nothing useful on thermal imaging either, just that same tiny blur." He poked a control, the screen next to the visible light one coming up with a false color image. As he'd said, there was a matching, barely noticeable, blur moving at high speed through the fighters, leaving a trail of bodies behind it. "The gang members are maintaining normal body temperature so they're probably only unconscious," he added a few seconds later. "Must be a cape, some sort of stealth system."

"Do we know anyone with that ability in the city?"

"No, ma'am, nothing on record. Could it be one of the lizards?"

She glanced at him, then back at the screen. At least half the gang members were now still, and the remaining ones seemed to be panicking as they noticed that they were being whittled down by something unseen. The aerial shot showed that several groups of them had apparently either spotted the invisible cape's stealth shield, whatever it was, or possibly guessed it was there, and were now firing everything they had at it. Not that this seemed to have any effect at all since it kept moving at the same speed, apparently totally ignoring the incoming fire.

"Armsmaster reported that the one called Metis appeared to have some form of invisibility," she finally said, remembering the report. "That would seem the most likely cause."

"Possibly a force field of some sort," one of the other people in the room suggested in a thoughtful voice. "Look, that guy there just fired half a dozen grenades directly at it, and got at least two solid hits, but it didn't even slow down. A force field with stealth mode might explain it."

"Or it's just that tough," someone else noted. He nodded.

"Possible. We know they're high level Brutes."

"Fast, too, that distortion is moving at up to eighty miles an hour at times."

Emily watched with slightly amazed fascination as the last gang members were hunted down and dropped, even the ones taking cover behind vehicles and walls. When all the ones in the street were silent and still, the presumed Metis disappeared into one of the damaged buildings along the path of the battle, half a dozen more ABB running out seconds later, firing over their shoulders.

Not one of them made it more than fifty feet.

The first console operator whistled in shock, shaking his head. "I don't know _what_ that thing is doing, but it's _good_ at it."

"Apparently so," she muttered, still watching intently. "What about the Parahuman villains?"

"VTOL-1 has located Crusader, he was unconscious on the roof of one of the buildings near the initial point the combat started with two bullet wounds to the chest. We diverted a nearby patrol to collect him and bring him in, he's due shortly. They're providing medical support and say he'll make it."

She looked at the technician who had spoken and nodded her thanks.

"Oni Lee is engaging Stormtiger close to the school, that's where most of the rockets and grenades are coming from. They're heading away from the main battle, Stormtiger appears hurt but Oni Lee is beginning to slow down. He may retreat soon based on past actions," someone else reported. "I've dispatched Velocity to attempt an intercept if he does, it's possible he could manage to foam his head and stop him teleporting. A squad is backing Velocity up."

"We've got eyes on Rune, she was mostly acting defensively while under heavy fire, but now she seems to be mainly holding back and watching from a distance," yet another person put in. "About three hundred feet up and north of the school." He listened to his earpiece for a second. "Laserdream is engaging Rune at range. Glory Girl just headed that way to provide backup." Everyone looked at the screen he indicated, showing a view from another of the aircraft. Brilliant energy blasts were going from a flying figure towards the improvised ' _armored vehicle_ ' the E88 cape was crouched in, while the other girl was frantically blocking the shots with lumps of rock she put in the way of each blast.

Mere seconds later, Glory Girl came in from behind, neatly grabbed the Nazi girl under her armpits, and lifted her clean out of the repurposed dumpster, which instantly dropped straight down along with all the other debris as Rune lost control in her shock. Even through a telescopic view Emily could see the panic in the body language of the captured villain. She frantically tried to escape before visibly realizing that she was six hundred feet in the air with no support other than the blonde girl carrying her, then basically gave up.

Laserdream rose to fly next to her cousin and appeared to shout something, then give a thumb's up sign. Rune made an obscene gesture in return.

Several people in the operations room chuckled. "That was very neatly carried out," one of the techs snickered. "I didn't know Barbie had it in her."

Despite thinking that New Wave was a pain in the ass and their flying Brute was the worst offender in that respect, Emily was forced to admit it was indeed an effective operation. It had taken only a few seconds and caused no collateral damage except for the somewhat large hole in the road where the dumpster had landed. Luckily no one was standing there at the time. She hoped both girls had considered that before they'd acted.

Everyone turned their attention to the largest screen, which was showing an overhead view of a furious Lung rampaging through several burning buildings after Hookwolf, who was clearly on the defensive but not giving up. Whatever else he was, the brutal Nazi wasn't a quitter.

"God, look at the size of him," another operator said in shock as yet another building exploded to reveal the still-growing cape.

"How the hell are we going to stop him?" someone at the back of the room asked.

They all fell silent very suddenly indeed, gaping at the image on the display. No one said anything for several seconds.

Finally one of the technicians cleared his throat and pointed. "Like that?"

"What _is_ that?"

"I have no idea," Emily said, shaking her head and staring at the large metallic gray sphere that had, with no warning at all, appeared around Lung as he'd paused and looked down at something on the ground which they couldn't make out from the current position of the aircraft providing the imagery. Moments later, the view shifted sideways as the air crew repositioned their vehicle, revealing the reptilian form of Raptaur, who was looking at the dully shining ball with apparent satisfaction. The huge lizard walked over to it, put her hand on it, then everyone twitched in shock again.

They watched as Raptaur bent down and picked up something about the size of a baseball, which the huge sphere had turned into with an eye-warping visual effect, tossed it up and caught it, then put it away somewhere. She turned her head and looked directly up at the aircraft camera, grinned, and disappeared.

"Fuck me."

Everyone looked at the operator who'd spoken. Then back at the screen.

Emily sighed heavily. This day was getting better and better, in a way that she wished she could have a large drink to deal with.

"Hookwolf just vanished," someone said, sounding numb. "We have a report from a trooper on the ground who was tracking him that Saurial appeared next to him, punched him in the head and apparently knocked him cold with one hit, then did the same thing that just happened to Lung to him before he hit the ground."

"She punched out _Hookwolf?!"_

"Yeah. One shot."

"Remind me not to upset her."

"You got it."

There was near-silence in the room for nearly a minute, only one or two people talking quietly into their headsets coordinating various operations, until another controller announced, "Velocity got Oni Lee. Took him by surprise and foamed him right in the face."

"Stormtiger?" Emily looked over at the woman.

"I think Metis might have gone after him. He dropped in his tracks, there was no visible indication of what did it."

"So it's over." She exhaled slowly. "That was not how I expected it to go."

"Armsmaster is reporting that there are minor casualties at the school from shrapnel damage. Two BBPD officers were hurt when their vehicle was destroyed by a rocket from Oni Lee, apparently by accident. One critical, one fairly minor. No deaths reported. Panacea is on site and providing medical support. We have squads out locating the gang members now."

She nodded slowly, listening as other reports came in. The mess at Winslow was still there, things were now even more fucked up, but at least a full scale gang war had been averted although she was still having trouble with how that had happened.

When Costa-Brown finally deigned to call her, though, she would be able to tell the woman that they'd just crippled the ABB and seriously inconvenienced the E88. With a grand total of seven Parahuman villains captured, hopefully it would be enough to cause her superior to at least sit down and listen for once. And it might make the city administration feel slightly happier too, which would help.

Even so, she was even more confused now that when all this had started, and it all seemed to revolve around three weird lizards.

Who clearly had a _lot_ more abilities than anyone had realized...

* * *

Tapped into the various data feeds from the PRT vehicles and personnel, Dragon watched in astonishment as the three reptiles shut down the entire battle in about four minutes flat. The one called Metis was clearly responsible for the largest number of combatants dropped, the almost unnoticeable distortion betraying her presence as she dashed around the battlefield leaving a trail of unconscious gang members behind her. There was no obvious cause for them to drop but they did in droves. Acoustic analysis from the various microphones around the area in vehicles and comms sets, when the majority of the gunfire fell silent, revealed some faint popping sounds that might have been some form of gas-propelled projectile being fired. It was the closest signature to the sound she could determine although it wasn't an exact match to anything on record.

She could tell from the thermal cameras that all the gang members were merely deeply unconscious, so it appeared to be some form of stun weapon, which was comforting. The lizards appeared to be trying to minimize damage from what she could see.

Glory Girl appeared on the scene a minute or so after the reptiles went to work, flying over four running PRT aircrew members who quickly took cover, then joined her family. She had a quick conversation with Laserdream, the older girl pointing at the distant figure of Rune who was hovering over the far side of the battlefield, then Panacea joined them for a moment. Apparently reaching a consensus, Glory Girl took off again, zipped around the back of the school, and disappeared, while Laserdream lifted into the air and began sniping at Rune.

When her cousin snuck up on the distracted E88 girl and neatly nabbed her right out of her dumpster, Dragon smiled inside her mindscape, somewhat favorably impressed. That was definitely a smooth move. The younger girl quickly brought her captive back to the ground, Panacea immediately grabbing her face, then both of them lowering the now-unconscious girl to lie on her back next to Victor. Lady Photon, her husband, and Miss Militia were apparently somewhat surprised. Colin merely nodded approvingly, which amused Dragon quite a lot.

As long as you did it efficiently, her friend would probably just go along with it, she thought to herself with a mental chuckle. The thing he hated more than anything else was wasting time and effort.

When the enormous sphere of the material Metis had called EDM appeared around Lung, stopping his rampage in its tracks, she just stared in shock. Then she started to think very hard indeed. When, moments later, it underwent the weirdest transformation she'd ever seen and warped into something small enough to put into your pocket, which Raptaur promptly did, she nearly threw an exception.

' _That was some sort of dimensional operation,_ ' she thought frantically. ' _Similar to what Vista does but far more complex. How are they_ ** _doing_** _all this?_ ' It was completely different to any Parahuman power set that she'd ever heard of, and she knew almost all of them. These damn lizards seemed to be pulling new abilities out of nowhere at will.

It made Saurial's claim that the Endbringers were scared of them that much more plausible, though.

When she'd recovered she went back to watching through Colin's system as the three reptiles returned, listening intently for as much information as she could gather.

* * *

"What _is_ it doing?"

Geoff looked at one of his friends, then returned his attention to the very special laptop he guarded like it was his child. The reams of code and data scrolling past in several windows was virtually meaningless to anyone but him. He was able to make enough sense of it to see what the AI calling itself Dragon was doing most of the time, and get some insight into its thought processes, but even he didn't fully understand all of it. The only one who had ever managed that was the one who designed it in the first place, but Richter was long dead, having gone down with his home in Newfoundland.

"It seems to be confused, if I had to give it a human emotion," he replied. "A few hours ago it started looking for something, then ended up concentrating on a place called Brockton Bay on the east coast of the US, North of Boston."

"What's there?" his friend and team-mate Mags asked curiously. "That name is vaguely familiar but I can't place it."

"The PRT ENE is based there, and it's got the dubious distinction of having practically the highest number of capes per capita of anywhere in the US. Possibly the world. Place is like a small war zone half the time from what the news says," he replied, not really paying attention. "Dragon spends a lot of time talking to Armsmaster, the Tinker based there."

"So why is it paying attention now?" she asked, pulling another chair over to the desk he was seated at.

"I'm not sure. There's some sort of Parahuman fight going on as far as I can tell. Place is swarming with gangs and seems to have more battles than any three normal cities twice the size should have. Armsmaster has been dealing with whatever it is since this morning as far as I can tell. Dragon contacted him after doing a lot of thinking about all sorts of random problems covering most of the country. And it spent some time looking at the Endbringer data too. I don't know if or how they're connected."

He looked at the shielded button on one side of the keyboard yet again. One press of that and the AI would die. As always, he was tempted to just do it and get it over with, but as always he held off. So far, it was acting in a way that was a net benefit, but he knew that sooner or later it would show its true colors…

Geoff was ready for that day.

Hardly anyone else was, so he had to do his duty and protect humanity from the machine threat, no matter what it took.

Picking up his coffee he took a sip of it, still keeping an eye on the machine as it thought, while wondering why it was so interested in Brockton Bay.

* * *

Colin looked at Hannah, then both of them stared at Saurial, who was holding out an EDM sphere approximately three inches across. "Excuse me?" he asked in shock. "Did you just say that Hookwolf is inside… that?"

"Yep. He'll keep, don't worry. When you want to let him out, just press that yellow circle there, put it on the floor, and stand back." She offered him the thing again. Rather tentatively he accepted it and looked closely at it. "It won't open unless you mean to do it, so it won't happen by accident."

He glanced at her again, frowning. "Some form of intent-driven system?" She nodded, smiling a little. "Impressive. I assume a neural interface using a remote brain scanning method..."

"Or magic."

She grinned when he gave her a hard look, then shrugged. "Don't worry about it. It works." She looked to the side as Raptaur appeared out of thin air, then held out an identical sphere. "And that one is Lung." Taking it from her sister, she put it to her eye, then smiled. "Out like a light and back in human form. You were right, gassing him was nice and simple."

"It's worked before, I didn't see any reason it wouldn't work this time," Raptaur said.

"True enough." Saurial handed the other sphere to Colin, who gingerly and wonderingly accepted it. "That should help you guys out. Panacea got Victor, Laserdream and Glory Girl got Rune, Metis took out Stormtiger and..."

She looked over at her cousin, who called, "Ninety-seven."

"...Ninety-seven gangers. You've got Lung and Hookwolf there, plus your guys got Oni Lee and Crusader. Not a bad result." Saurial looked pleased.

"I will admit your methods, while unconventional, do appear very effective," he said after a moment, handing both metallic spheres to one of the PRT people listening to their conversation. "And thank you for your aid. This could easily have gone far less well, considering the proximity of a large number of civilians."

Saurial looked at the school and nodded. He followed her gaze. Half a dozen windows were broken and there were shrapnel craters across several places on the side facing them. Luckily the preliminary reports said nothing other than minor injuries had occurred, the bulk of the people inside having had enough sense to stay under cover during the battle. "For what it's worth, I'm fairly sure that both the ABB and the E88 weren't intending to attack the school itself. They seemed to be trying to avoid it as much as possible. Even Lung."

Hannah said in a thoughtful tone, "It could certainly have ended up with a lot more damage very easily so you may be right. I'm surprised the casualties are so low, I have to say."

Colin looked over to where Panacea was working on the two cops whose car had been exploded by a rogue rocket. "Even that appears to have been a misfire, I suspect. We are lucky that Oni Lee didn't manage to drop any more rockets in this area."

Nodding, Saurial followed his eyes, then looked at her sister. Turning back to him, she said, "You're going to be dealing with this for a while, so we're going to go and look for other gangers who might need medical aid. We can heal them up and bring them back here. If you want to have Panacea check them over feel free. And we have a short errand to run."

About to say something, Colin stopped when she added, "Don't worry, we'll be back soon. As I said before all this went down, we have a lot to discuss with you guys, and your director. Metis will stay here and help out, and she can call us back if you need us before we return."

The lizard-girl looked past his shoulder, making him turn his head. One of the transports that had been providing shelter for civilians during the short battle had opened and the people inside were coming out. One middle-aged man holding a sheaf of paperwork and wearing a desolate expression looked towards them, then away.

When he looked back to Saurial, she seemed to momentarily be somewhat sad, but shook her head a little. "Anyway, we'll see you in a little while."

Stepping back, she waved, then both she and her sister were gone again.

After a moment or two, Hannah sighed. "Whatever Mover rating those two get, it's probably not high enough."

He nodded slowly. "Agreed. They do seem to possess a remarkable number of talents. Apparently healing needs to be added to that. Definitely high level Trumps."

Wondering what the ' _errand_ ' Saurial had mentioned was, he moved away to have a little privacy to talk to Dragon. Perhaps his friend could come up with some answers to the many, _many_ questions he had about this entire situation. He personally was having trouble with a number of aspects of it.

* * *

"Good grief," Danny said faintly as he watched the news. Beside him, Taylor looked up from her book, which she was reading with great interest and many odd expressions, to gaze at the TV.

"Wow," she said as they watched a slightly shaky video of Lung bursting out through the side of a burning building, spraying debris everywhere, with Hookwolf immediately attacking him. The news crew appeared to be driving away as fast as possible based on how the image was steadily shrinking even though it was clearly being zoomed in at the same time.

He couldn't blame them for clearing out. Both the Parahumans locked in battle were bad news. Lung was close to the worst possible news when he was like this.

"I hope no one gets hurt," he said with concern. "That's right next to your school."

Taylor grimaced. "If they manage to evacuate it, I wouldn't care if Lung torched the entire place," she grumbled. He put his hand on her shoulder, feeling she had a point.

"Well, half the Protectorate _and_ the PRT are there, not to mention our new friends," he replied quietly. "I suspect that this will end fairly quickly with those two involved."

"Probably." She watched for a moment longer then went back to her book, which seemed more interesting than a major Parahuman battle at the moment. "Good thing they're so experienced. Can you imagine how crazy it would be to take on someone like Lung on your first day out?"

He laughed, picturing how that would go. No one would be _that_ crazy, not even a cape. Settling back comfortably, he watched as the news report continued, trying to ignore the dozen large flies doing a full military-style aerobatic display in the middle of the room. It was only lacking colored smoke trails.

* * *

Max looked up as the door to his office opened, revealing an exhausted looking James. "What the _fuck_ happened?" he snarled, pointing at the TV in rage. "How did a simple mission turn into a fucking _war?_ "

"I don't know," his subordinate said, slamming the door and heading for his bar, at which he grabbed a bottle of very expensive brandy and a glass. Half filling the latter, he downed the contents in one shot, then refilled it. "It was going fine until those two goddam idiots Über and Leet led half the ABB directly at Rune and Crusader. I have no fucking idea _how_ they managed to do it, _or_ how they even knew we were there. Or, for that matter, _why_ they did. But it has to be them, two guys in balaclavas going around blowing up Tinker Tech devices is exactly their MO."

"At least tell me that someone shot the fuckers," Max gritted. James shrugged.

"No idea. They just disappeared. No clue where they went. But that's what started it. The whole thing just escalated like crazy."

"FUCK!" Max slammed his hand on the desk hard enough to make everything jump. "And I've lost contact with Hookwolf and Stormtiger too."

"The PRT was all over the fucking place, half of New Wave were there too..." James finished his brandy and looked at the bottle in his other hand, but put it down again. "I saw Glory Girl and Laserdream get Rune. There's a good chance the others got grabbed too. Or Lung got them." He sighed, dropping into a chair facing Max's desk. "That bastard was ramped to hell, even Brad wouldn't stand a chance. I don't know if even the PRT can handle him now. I sure don't want to go and look."

"Damn it all. Now what do we do?" Max scowled. "We'll have to arrange to break anyone the PRT gets out, but that can wait until things calm down. I'm very tempted to go and find Über and his idiotic Tinker friend and express our displeasure, though."

"I would very much enjoy that," James said with a vicious smile.

"Personally I think that's something you should probably reconsider," a voice neither of them had ever heard before said totally unexpectedly. It had a strange accent and sounded mildly amused. Both men jumped to their feet and whipped around to stare at the humanoid lizard female in armor standing next to the window, looking out at the city below. "Nice view, by the way."

She turned to look at them, smiling in a way that made their blood run cold. "Hello, Kaiser. We need to discuss a few changes you're going to have to deal with around here from now on."

Max gaped at her in total shock. It took several seconds before he noticed that the windows seemed to have vanished, along with the door to his office. And where was that sound of dripping water coming from?


	9. Fallout

Staring at the phone on her desk with astonishment, Carol finally said, " _Amy_ took out _Victor?_ "

" _Yes. Apparently with no difficulty whatsoever, and with considerable enjoyment,"_ her sister replied, sounding fairly puzzled _. "She's in a better mood right now than I've seen out of her for months. Actually smiling. Admittedly, it's the sort of smile that would make most people back away slowly, but it's a_ ** _smile._** "

"How… No, more importantly, _why_ did she get involved?" Carol was having some trouble with what the other woman had been telling her about the complete chaos at Winslow.

" _As far as I can determine Vicky decided that it was a good idea to come and help, without bothering to check whether she was right, and dragged Amy along. They spotted Victor, then Krieg, Rune, and Crusader, sat and plotted for a while, and ended up jumping the prick when everything got complicated._ " Sarah sighed a little. " _Vicky distracted him and Amy dropped him. Then stole his gear_."

"She did _what?!_ "

" _Looted him to his underwear, basically. Neil thinks it's hilarious, and even Miss Militia was smiling about it at one point_."

Carol was silent for a moment, trying to picture Amy of all people doing that. The rather morose young woman she was familiar with didn't quite match the image her sister was painting. "She can't _do_ that," she finally said.

Sarah sounded like she was trying not to laugh. " _Apparently she can. And did. Assault was laughing like an idiot when he found out and congratulated her for making the most of her crime-fighting debut. Which seemed to make Amy pleased, and Battery very irritated. They're arguing about it right now._ "

"The PRT will make her give it all back," Carol pointed out.

" _I doubt it. She also confiscated Victor's phone, which was unlocked at the time, and was smart enough to turn the password lock off before calling me with it. She gave it to Armsmaster, which impressed him favorably. And she's been running around healing everyone who got hurt, including a number of BBPD officers and some PRT troopers, not to mention several students. The only other thing he wanted was the man's hand gun, which she gave him with a smile. Armsmaster scanned the rest of the equipment she… acquired… and said none of it was either restricted or stolen, and that was all he was interested in._ "

"So she's just going to keep it?"

" _So it seems. The telescope Victor was using for surveillance is a very nice piece of equipment, it's probably worth about ten grand_." Her sister almost audibly shrugged. " _To be honest, Carol, I'd let it go. She's in a much better place right now than she has been for some considerable time, Vicky is very pleased about it, both of them are impressing the PRT quite a lot between Amy capturing Victor, Vicky saving that aircraft and probably four lives, and the intelligence they gathered. It's not doing our reputation any damage at all, believe me. A little creative asset redistribution can be overlooked. Armsmaster doesn't seem to care at all_."

"I hope she's not planning on making a habit of that sort of thing." Carol shook her head in a sort of irritated bemusement. "It could reflect badly on..."

" _It won't do us any harm at all, Carol_ ," Sarah interrupted. " _If anything it's helped our reputation. Looting a Nazi is hardly seen as a bad thing after all. She took him down as cleanly as you could wish for, not even any bruises, and that's impressive no matter which way you look at it. Considering how Director Piggot tends to think of independents, we can do with all the good will we can get, and the three youngest New Wave members on site have managed to get us a lot of that in short order. I know it's not what we planned, nor did it happen in the way we probably would have wanted, but we got it and shouldn't waste the opportunity. Crystal, Vicky, and Amy have shown that they can come up with a good plan, coordinate their efforts, and pull it off very well. Don't get bent out of shape and ruin it for them._ ** _Or_** _us. Please?_ "

"But..." Carol tried to calm herself. "They shouldn't have been involved."

" _Possibly correct. But they_ ** _were_** _, and it worked. We need to acknowledge that no matter what our personal feelings are. And possibly, when we have all had time to calm down, talk over what it could mean in a rational and pleasant manner. You understand me?_ "

Carol was silent for long enough for her sister to add, " _Don't drive them away, Carol. They're the future of New Wave. It's not like the rest of us do that much these days anyway, and if Amy can manage to curb some of Vicky's… excessive enthusiasm… which does seem to be happening at the moment, I for one think it's worth encouraging. Or at least not_ ** _discouraging_** _. Yes, we need to keep an eye on them and guide them where needed, but the last thing we want to do is cause them to resent us for doing what really was a good job._ "

"Oh, for god's sake," the somewhat younger woman sighed. "How did this bizarre situation end up like this?"

" _I haven't got the faintest idea_ ," her sister replied, a smile in her voice. " _It's sure not what I expected when I got here. But it is what it is. One way or the other, seven villains got taken off the street today and our kids were responsible for two of them. Let them have their moment. The only reason I told you about it now was so you wouldn't find out on the news and lose it at a bad moment. Relax, take some deep breaths, and move on. What's done is done. And it may be one of the better things that's happened to us for years in the long term._ "

With an absent nod, Carol leaned her head back against her chair and stared out the window across the city. "I'm worried that Amy has put herself in the cross-hairs of people who might think she's now a valid target." she sighed. "Before, she was just the healer. Now she's shown she's a potentially effective combatant under the right circumstances..."

Sarah sounded thoughtful. " _I doubt that is really a problem, though. In a very real sense she's always been a target. Anyone who thinks things through will realize that you go after the healer first, then the rest, because the healer is arguably the most important person on the battlefield. Eric has told me that more than once just based on those video games he likes. Sure, Amy is protected by sane people knowing that if someone actually hurt her, the PRT and New Wave, not to mention a lot of villains and almost all the public, would have their heads in a basket. On the other hand, you know as well as I do that there are a_ ** _lot_** _of people who_ ** _sane_** _is not a valid description for. We may have been lucky up until now._ "

"That's not helping, Sarah."

" _Sorry, but it's the truth. I don't think that Amy showing that at point blank range she's a lot more dangerous than she looks really changes much. It also makes me think that we need to make sure she has something more substantial than her existing costume. We should have done that years ago, but I never really considered it. I should have, and so should you._ "

Carol, reluctantly, admitted to herself that her sister had a point.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to look into it."

" _I know you've had issues with the girl for a long time, sis, and I know why, but she's part of the family. She's a decent person, she loves Vicky and Mark, and even with some of the things you've said, I think she at least respects you. And we all love her back." Her sister's voice had become very serious now. "Let it go, congratulate her on doing a good job, and we can work out what the ramifications for New Wave are later. OK?_ " Sarah fell silent, then added very quietly, " _She's not her father, Carol. And she won't become like him unless we do something very, very stupid_."

Massaging her temples, Carol tried to stay calm. Sarah knew exactly what buttons to push, even if she was doing so very gently. Eventually she sighed, looking at the phone on her desk.

"All right. Fine. I won't do anything stupid, I promise. But we do need to all sit down and have a talk at some point soon."

" _Agreed. And thank you_."

Neither of them said anything for a few seconds. Then Carol asked, "What is going on now regarding those reptilian capes? And do you have any clearer idea of what happened in the school? I haven't heard from Alan yet and I'm worried about his daughter."

" _Saurial, Raptaur, and Metis are their names,_ " her sister replied. " _Saurial is the little one, Raptaur is the honking great big one, and Metis is the black one who grins a lot and makes you think you need to see if your wallet is still there. And can apparently turn invisible then take out nearly a hundred armed gang members in three minutes single-handedly and make it look easy..._ " She sounded both impressed and appalled. Carol certainly was at the comment. " _I still don't know how she did it and neither does anyone else, other than it may have been some form of drugged projectile weapon. Armsmaster seems fascinated, of course. But Metis isn't saying much so far_."

"Who _are_ these people?" Carol said in frustration "Why have we never even heard of them before? I've checked with every source I can think of and no one has the first idea about them."

" _Got me. It's like they just popped up out of nowhere, but trust me, they're_ ** _definitely_** _not beginners at this sort of thing. Everything they've done shows they have a hell of a lot of experience with their abilities, and a lot more abilities than we know. I'm certain we haven't seen it all yet. Personally I suspect that they must be part of some sort of group we haven't heard about before, but how they could have hidden so well for so long I have no idea. Or even what this group might be called, where it's based, how many more of them there are… Nothing useful at all._ "

"But at least they're heroes?"

" _I…_ ** _think_** _so. There's no sign at the moment they're villains, put it like that. Independents, definitely, and possibly rogues more than specifically a heroic group, but I'm just guessing at this point. I can tell you that they weren't acting like they they were worried by the police or the PRT at all. Confidence and assurance of their own competence isn't something they lack. And based on what they've done, there's a good reason for that._ "

Sarah stopped for a second, then resumed, " _I would have to say that overall they give the impression of being very professional and practiced at dealing with emergency situations. Where they_ ** _got_** _that practice I don't have a clue. Armsmaster and Miss Militia are clearly very puzzled by the same thing, but they also appear to be impressed enough by it that they're not raising a fuss. Considering everything that's happened I'm not too surprised. By the look of it so far, they prevented a tragedy, then a disaster. I don't have enough information yet to really tell you more. But whatever really happened in Winslow could have been_ ** _very_** _bad if what I'm hearing from various people around here is right._ "

"This entire situation is _bizarre_ ," Carol complained.

" _Can't disagree with_ ** _that_** ," Sarah chuckled. " _I've actually_ ** _seen_** _it first hand. Bizarre is as good away of putting it as anything I can think of._ " She added after a pause, " _I don't know what the situation with Alan and his daughter is. But I don't think it's good. I saw him and Miss Militia together a while ago before the battle, he got out of one of the PRT transports and it looked like they'd been talking. I missed seeing him arrive but there was some commotion a few minutes before that over by the gate so possibly he was involved… not sure. We didn't have a good view of what was going on from where we were. Someone said that Metis came out of the school after that with three students in chains and they all went into one of the big trucks, but again I didn't see it so I can't say if his daughter was involved. Then again, why_ ** _would_** _she be?_ "

"In _chains?_ " Carol repeated, horrified. "School students? What in god's name _happened_ in that damn place?"

" _Whatever it was, it wasn't good. There are a lot of suggestions on PHO but no definite answer yet._ "

"I've read most of those. The bulk are clearly just speculation, but it does suggest that there was a toxic hazard in the school which is backed up by the hazmat people being there."

" _Oh, that part is definitely true_ ," Sarah agreed soberly. " _Some people from the CDC turned up and went inside in full level A hazmat gear, the sort of thing you'd used in case of a chemical or biological attack. I'm not sure what was released in there but they're taking it very seriously. The word is that the school will need to be closed for weeks. And that was_ ** _before_** _the damage from the attack. Looking at it now, there's going to be a lot of repair work required even leaving aside whatever contamination issues there are._ "

"Who would do that to a building full of _children?_ " Carol growled. "It's totally unacceptable."

" _I agree entirely. The authorities do too, by the looks of it_." She paused and there was muffled talking for a moment. " _Sorry, Neil just said that they're releasing the first groups of students and some of the staff having cleared and interviewed them. I expect as soon as the reporters get hold of any of those people this is going to blow up even more._ "

"Undoubtedly," Carol nodded, picking up the remote and turning the TV on the far wall of her office on, then muting it.

" _There's a massive queue of vehicles building up around the back of the school where parents are arriving to collect their kids. The front is impassable due to all the damage of course, and the cops are directing everyone away from there. It's getting a little ugly since people are starting to get overexcited and he's volunteered us to go help keep the peace. I'll call back later. If I see Alan I'll try to find out what happened._ "

"Thanks, Sarah. If I discover more I'll pass it on. Stay safe."

" _I'll do my best. Bye, Sis_."

Her sister hung up. After thinking about things for a while, Carol turned her attention to the TV, turning it up a little and waiting to see if anything new hit the local news, while doing some more research on her computer. There was more to this, she was sure, and it seemed likely that it wasn't good. Hopefully Alan's daughter was all right.

Twenty minutes later her phone rang, causing her to look at it. The name on the screen made her pick it up quickly and answer it. "Alan! How are you? What happened, is Emma OK?"

Her colleague made a strange sound, not quite a laugh and not quite a sob. She immediately felt worried. " _It's… Carol, it's really bad. And I think I'm going to need a very good lawyer. This is out of my experience or training_."

Now extremely worried as well as puzzled, she replied, "Talk to me, Alan. What's going on?"

After several seconds of silence, he started talking. She listened in growing horror to something that was every parents worst nightmare. 

* * *

After several appalled seconds, Max reacted instinctively, using his power to create a forest of steel blades that both rose from the floor where the lizard-girl was standing, and descended from the ceiling. Krieg was only moving away when he started. She'd be dead before his subordinate could do anything to help…

Except, to his absolute horror, he found that nothing happened. He stared as she sauntered forward a few steps, then regarded him with a glowing orange-yellow gaze, her head on one side in a curious manner like a cat examining its prey. "Good try, Max."

Her armor. He could summon blades on the inside, skewering the scaly bitch…

As it instantly turned out, no, he couldn't. His ability didn't do anything. Terrified, he checked it was actually still working, producing a spear from the front of his desk that shot forward to hit her armor. That was all it did, stopping dead at that point. She looked at it for a moment, then reached up and simply snapped the metal off about two feet from the end, the razor-sharp edges not apparently bothering her at all.

Both men watched in appalled silence as she took a bite out of the end of the spear tip and chewed thoughtfully. "Not bad. A little too much chromium, but on the whole I like it." She ate the rest, swallowed, then brushed her hands off while smiling at him in a very unnerving manner.

"What the fuck _are_ you?" he whispered in shock.

"Oh, I'm just a visitor," she replied idly, moving over to the wall to inspect a painting he had there. She looked closely at it for a moment, then nodded. "Really nice. You have good taste in art." Turning back to them, she regarded them for a moment. "Your power doesn't work on EDM, so you might as well stop trying," she added.

"EDM?" he queried, both because he didn't recognize the acronym and to buy time. He'd pressed the emergency call button on the floor under his desk with his foot, so the security team should already be on the way. He gave up attempting to make blades grow through her feet and just stared while his mind frantically tried to come up with something else.

"It's a family specialty," she replied, tapping her armor. "Powers have a lot of trouble with it in many cases. Yours is one of them."

He looked up and realized that the ceiling was now covered in some metallic substance that he'd never seen before, and peering over the desk he could see that the floor was as well. And all the walls. Somehow it seemed to have practically grown over all the surfaces of the room without him noticing until now.

"How did…?"

She grinned. "In some ways I have a power a little like yours, but nowhere near as limited," the reptile said, holding out a hand. An ornate knife appeared in it as both of them stared, the material it was made of a dull gray color. She spun it through her fingers a couple of times at dizzying speed, flipped it to balance on one finger, then tossed it into the air where it silently disappeared. "And not limited to steel. Or anything, for that matter."

He watched with incredulity as she juggled a set of a dozen balls of different metals that appeared one by one, a couple of them obviously gold and one probably platinum. "Comes in handy."

The balls all vanished as she lowered her hands.

"What do you want?" James said, staring at her cautiously. Max shared that caution. She seemed to be immune to direct application of his power, which complicated things a lot. Clearly a high level Brute, with a Shaker ability that eclipsed more or less anything he could think of, aside from whatever other tricks she had. And the more he looked at her, the less sure he became that she was some form of Case 53 or otherwise physically divergent Parahuman.

There was just something in her eyes and the way that she held herself that made him wonder…

Until he knew more, he couldn't risk doing anything precipitous. He could see that James was thinking much the same. They were effectively trapped inside his office until she let them go. At least she seemed, for the moment, to be relatively non-hostile and to only want to talk.

He could do that. It was one of his greatest strengths after all.

Looking around again in quick motions of his eyes, while trying to keep her in view, he realized that the windows and doors really had apparently disappeared entirely. The effect was odd, as there was no obvious sign of where he _knew_ they should be, nothing apparently covering them, merely a complete absence of something that had always been there. This mysterious substance she called EDM coated everything in a thin layer, even the ceiling lights. Illumination in the room was now coming from somewhere hidden, he noticed.

Pressing the alarm button on the floor again, somewhat hopelessly, he wondered if the security office was even getting the signal. He thought, based on what he could see, that it wouldn't do much if they _did_ , since there was now no apparent way into or out of his office suite.

How was she doing this? Some sort of Shaker power, at least as strong as Faultline's little bitch Labyrinth. But much more subtle, since he'd not even noticed it until it was too late.

He glanced at James, seeing him staring back, a look of extreme worry in his eyes.

"You seem to have me at a disadvantage, my dear," he said after a moment of thought. Perhaps his friendly public face would help here. There was no harm in trying. "I don't even know your name."

"My name is Saurial," she replied, moving to a point in front of his desk. "I represent the Family."

"The Family?" he queried, slowly sitting down again and subtly gesturing for James to do the same. Putting her at ease might let him talk his way out of this. She clearly had powers they didn't understand, and somehow knew things she shouldn't have. There was no sense jumping right into battle until they understood what she wanted.

"We're not local," Saurial smiled. "Although we're familiar with the situation here. And the people involved." She looked at James for a second, then went back to gazing at him. "To a fairly detailed level."

"Indeed?"

"Oh, indeed, yes." Her smiled widened. "We know all about Kaiser, and Krieg here, and Hookwolf, better known as Brad Meadows… All sorts of interesting data, really. We sort of collect it."

Max felt a cold chill go through him. She knew _far_ too much. _How?_

"And what do you want with us?" he asked slowly, trying frantically to work out what to do.

"You personally? Nothing much. Mostly to tell you that the Empire Eighty Eight is out of business." She shrugged casually as both of them gaped. "We don't like racists, you understand. You guys have caused a lot of damage around here for way too long and it stops now. Don't worry, Lung is getting a similar talk, and we'll deal with Skidmark and his friends soon too."

James suddenly exploded in rage, half-jumping to his feet. "Who the hell are you to tell us we have to st..." His voice abruptly halted and his face paled as he stared at the obviously appallingly sharp sword she had manifested from nowhere without even looking at him, the tip barely touching his throat. A tiny bead of blood ran down his skin as she slowly turned her head to fix him with an unsettlingly hard gaze.

"Sit down, James Fliescher, before I lose my patience with you. This is not a debate. I am doing you the courtesy of explaining the new state of affairs in Brockton Bay, the least you can do is listen politely."

She stared at him, while Max held his breath, until James very carefully indeed retook his seat, the three foot blade following him down the entire way.

"Thank you." The sword vanished without a trace and she lowered her arm. Max hadn't even seen her move, it was so quick.

No, this one was not to be taken lightly…

Returning her attention to him, Saurial smiled a little, showing many very sharp teeth in a way that wasn't entirely friendly. "Now, as I was saying. We know about you, and many, many other things. Some of which would horrify even you, in fact." She leaned forward, putting her hands on the desk and looking steadily at him. He couldn't look away from that alien gaze. "We're going to save your world from destruction, fix a few things that are annoying, and move on. In return, you guys are going to find a new hobby that doesn't kill people."

He gaped as she grinned. "Because if you don't… we might come back. You probably wouldn't want that to happen."

Max was abruptly sure she was entirely correct.

"Save the world?" James asked, his right hand massaging his throat. He sounded nervous and a little uncertain, which was a first in Max's experience.

"Yep."

"From what?"

"Well..." Saurial smirked at them both. "Aliens, basically."

Both of them exchanged a long worried glance. She was lethal, knew way too much, and was apparently also crazy.

Could this get any worse?

As it happened, he would come to regret that thought. 

* * *

Kenta rolled over, groaned, then sat up. His head was spinning worse than he could ever remember, which was not only painful but concerning, since his power had removed this sort of thing more or less entirely due to his regeneration even when he wasn't actively ramped up.

What had happened? He could remember… Oni Lee had come in and told him that some Empire capes were attacking his people, for reasons that were unclear. Something about possibly Über and Leet leading them into an ambush? It wasn't obvious, but the word was that those two idiots had been seen in the vicinity of a large explosion that was obviously Tinker tech in origin. Whatever, that was something that could be looked at after the Empire was suitably chastised and removed from his territory.

Clearly Kaiser was overextending himself once again. He would need to be taught a lesson too.

Lee had, moments later, discovered an E88 member lurking on the roof of a building close to Kenta's main base, with equipment that suggested he was watching them. Of course the man hadn't survived the discovery, which was inevitable but slightly irritating as he could no longer explain himself. But added to the attack, it had obviously been part of a concerted plan by the Nazis to move in on him. Why they would have picked this particular time hadn't been certain, but had seemed likely that Kaiser had decided to capitalize on the PRT being preoccupied by whatever was going on at Winslow high school at the time to try something. The man had made a serious mistake, of course. As had those two video game fools if they were working for the Empire.

So Kenta, full of righteous anger, had ordered reinforcements to the battle raging in the street a few blocks away, then followed, growing steadily as he stomped towards the sounds of gunfire and explosions. Annoyingly, it turned out that Kaiser had also sent reinforcements, proving it was a serious operation, with Hookwolf and Stormtiger joining the fight almost at the same time Kenta had arrived.

Even as Oni Lee had made use of his latest toy with considerable effect, Kenta had engaged the Nazi Changer personally, Hookwolf being one of the very few capes in the city who could give him even close to a decent opponent. That wouldn't last for long, of course, since his eventual victory was assured, but the metal dog was definitely a fighter and much more persistent than most. Kenta could almost respect that.

It wouldn't stop him killing the dog, even so, but he would make it fast.

Despite his rage, he'd retained enough control to deliberately avoid engaging the PRT and Protectorate and to attempt to steer clear of the school. He was no mass murderer of children, he was a warrior defending his territory. There was no honor in slaughtering the defenseless. And the longer the PRT stayed out of it, which they would to protect those children until they had no choice, the less likely they were to present any form of threat to him until he had outgrown their resources.

Interestingly, he had noticed that even Hookwolf, not a man noted for self control at the best of times, was apparently _also_ avoiding the school as much as he could. Presumably Kaiser had ordered his people not to do anything that would risk an immediate kill order, which killing innocent children certainly would. Kenta didn't fear such, they had nothing that could stop him and he'd proven that several times, but Kaiser despite his large gang was nowhere near his level and wouldn't have wanted to push his luck.

Even so, it had been inevitable that sooner or later the battle could stray in that direction and indeed this had shortly happened. He'd smashed through an inconveniently placed building in pursuit of Hookwolf, only to find himself looking at a vast collection of horrified PRT and BBPD people. Taking advantage of their shock, he'd deliberately retraced his path, as had the annoying cur for likely similar reasons, both of them rejoining their fight at a distance from the authorities.

It had mildly amused him to wonder if the PRT would believe even if told that both the ABB and the E88 were avoiding the location of the school on purpose, rather than by chance. He'd suspected they wouldn't. Whatever, it was no concern of his.

He shook his head, very carefully, as the spinning diminished slowly.

What had happened next? He'd batted Hookwolf aside, turned to finish him off, then…

The lizard. There had been some enormous reptilian creature standing in his path smirking at him. At _HIM!_ He'd recognized it from the news report Oni Lee had shown him earlier as one of the new capes that had kicked off the mess at Winslow. What was it doing here? Facing him with a degree of insouciance he found both remarkable and irking.

Raising a hand to remove the obstruction from his path, while thinking that if the thing wanted to commit suicide far be it from him to prevent this, he'd blasted it with his fire. The damn thing had simply laughed, totally unscathed by the massive heat.

Then…

He tried to recall what happened next. A moment later, his view had gone entirely dark, his scream of shock and rage echoing like he was in some vast hall. Seconds after that, he'd felt weak, tired, like something was overcoming him… Then nothing.

Raising a hand he examined it in the dim yellow-orange glow that seemed to illuminate wherever he was now. He seemed to have reverted entirely to his normal human form while he was unconscious.

"Some cape trick," he growled to himself, checking to see if his mask was present. It wasn't. "I will kill that thing for its insolence. I am Lung, and no one beats me!"

He was trying not to think about the apparent fact that this wasn't _entirely_ accurate based on the last thing he could remember. It didn't matter, he would deal with the lizard permanently next time. It had taken him by surprise when he was concentrating on dealing with the Empire dog, using some low trick while he didn't give his full attention to it. That wouldn't work again.

Looking beyond his own legs for the first time, he stared at the floor of the place he was in. Tapping it showed it seemed to be made of some form of metal. Looking up he could see a wall rose seamlessly from the floor twenty feet away, going up to a ceiling that vanished into the dimness. The light level here was quite low, bright enough to let him read, but not enough to let him make out what was above him. It was clear that the roof of this metallic space was some considerable distance away even so.

A cell, perhaps? He got to his feet and approached the wall, feeling it then punching it. There was only a dull thud in response, like he'd tried to punch his way through an anvil. Whatever the wall was made of, it was thick and solid.

Where the hell was he? This didn't make sense. There were no warehouses he knew of anywhere near the city that were this large inside, and the completely slick surface of the wall was unlike any building he'd ever encountered anyway. Even the PRT didn't have anything like this. Had he been transported somewhere while he was unconscious?

A momentary feeling of worry went through him as he gazed up at the wall. Was this the Birdcage? Surely not, it didn't match anything he'd ever heard about that place, and in any case he'd have been tried first before being sent there.

Losing his temper, he roared, "Speak to me, whoever you are! I am Lung and I _demand_ an answer! Who are you, and where am I?"

The echoes faded away into the distance. Turning on the spot, all he could see was the wall vanishing away upwards and on both sides, and the floor doing likewise. He stared around, seeing that the light seemed to be coming from a pair of oddly colored lamps far above him. Other than that, there was nothing. Just this wall, and the floor.

Hitting the wall again in fury, which again did nothing, he mentally tossed a coin, then went left. After several minutes of walking he found another wall. This one also went upwards out of sight into the gloom, and off into the distance. Whatever this place was, it was _huge_.

He followed that wall too, finding another one some time later. Again Kenta turned left and stomped along the fourth wall. Finally reaching another ninety-degree corner, he concluded that he was inside some immense square space, walled and floored in some weird metal. While the walls themselves were so slick it was like they were greased, the floor provided excellent traction despite apparently being the same material. Presumably some Tinker made bullshit metal.

Totally losing his patience, he unleashed a huge wave of fire against the wall. If there were no doors, he'd _make_ one.

Seconds passed as his flames roared forth, a gout of nearly white-hot fire spreading out across the surface he was raging at. When he finally stopped, he stared, then stepped forward and put his hand on it.

The fucking thing was stone cold. Not a mark on it, and not even any residual heat from a flame that he knew could melt stone.

"Where are you?" he screamed in fury. "Who are you? Where is this? Release me, or my vengeance will be a thing of legend. I am LUNG! **I AM A DRAGON AND I WILL NOT BE CONTAINED! I DO NOT LOSE!** "

He was having, despite attempts to not think of it, flashbacks to his time with the Yangban in China.

He didn't like to remember those days.

A few seconds passed while he breathed harshly, wondering rather absently why his current level of anger didn't seem to cause him to begin to grow more than a small amount. That only happened when there was no threat to respond to. Which, if true, could mean that he was actually alone, come to think about it…

This thought was interrupted by a deep, deep sound that it took him a moment to realize was a laugh.

One that sounded like it came from something… _very, very large.  
_  
And above him.

Slowly, he turned.

Then, equally slowly, he looked upwards.

The two yellow-orange lamps far above him… blinked.

Lung froze, a purely atavistic terror crawling down his back, as he suddenly came to the appalling realization that the lamps were… eyes.

As he gaped up in shock, the eyes narrowed slightly, the glow brightening. Then they came closer. And closer.

The distant ceiling began to light up, a deep red color suffusing the entire multi-acre space. What it lit from behind nearly made him, despite himself, pass out in horror.

 **"YOU are a dragon, little human?"**

The voice rumbled through the impossibly large room, making his very bones vibrate from the sound.

 **"I... think not."**

As he stared wide-eyed, the creature that had been somehow clinging to the walls far above him lithely descended to the floor, then crouched down, wings the area of several football fields rustling as they settled against sides that could be measured in hundreds of feet at least. The enormous head, three times the size of a greyhound bus with teeth as long as telephone poles, lowered on an enormous neck to peer at him from mere yards away, the glowing eyes over twice his height. Catlike pupils expanded slightly with interest.

 **"I _am_ a Dragon, you see. And I know what to look for. What I am looking at is a tiny Parahuman would-be warlord, who finds himself at my mercy."**

The creature, which really _was_ a dragon, in the sense of something that would make any fantasy book weep with envy, smiled at him, then licked its lips.

 **"I believe, little Lung, that we need to discuss how things will work in Brockton Bay from now on. I would advise listening closely, for I will not repeat myself. And if by any chance you manage to escape the human authorities, which I cannot rule out based on their performance to date, know that I can and will find you if required."**

Kenta was barely breathing by now.

The impossibly vast being leaned that little bit closer. **"And know that you would make a _very_ small snack."**

The huge forked tongue flicked out and the very tips gently touched his face. **"But a tasty one, I suspect..."**

Kenta passed out again, this time with relief. Perhaps when he woke up again, the world would go back to making sense.

Unfortunately, this proved to be incorrect. 

* * *

****  
Stomping into the secure conference room, Emily glared at everyone in it. "Well? What the fucking _hell_ is going on? Where are those damned lizards, where is Shadow Stalker, and what happened today!?"

"Shadow Stalker and her two accomplices are in custody in the cells, waiting for their legal representation and parents to attend," Colin replied in a manner that was calm enough to make her want to strangle him. "The full ramifications of what happened at Winslow and the ensuing street battle between the E88 and the ABB is still a work in progress, although between us, these newcomers, and New Wave we have managed to account for a significant number of villains with minimal casualties."

She glared even harder. His helmet turned very slightly and she got the impression he might have blinked a couple of times, purely from the body language.

"And the lizards are standing behind you, Director."

Emily whipped around to see all three of the reptilian capes smiling at her. Somehow having gained entrance to the most secure room in the entire PRT building, without triggering any alarms.

Which was all _sorts_ of worrying.

"Hello, Director Piggot," the smallest scaly figure said with a smile. She looked around at the way everyone was gaping at her, even Hannah not quite managing to point a weapon at her in apparent shock. "What's wrong with them?" she asked her friends in a lower voice behind her hand.

"You're wearing the wrong costume again," the black lizard, Metis, said equally quietly.

"Am I?"

She reached up to her head and pulled off the strange conical hat that was sitting on it, a tacky looking thing that seemed to have been slightly eaten by mice, which had the word ' _Lizzard_ ' written on it in colorful sequins. Many of which were falling off.

"Oops." Saurial patted her chest, looking down at the moth-eaten robes she was wearing. "Sorry. Wrong world. Hang on a second..."

Suddenly the weird clothing was replaced by the same armor she'd been seen in earlier. The hat in her hand became a fedora which she flipped onto her head at a rakish angle.

Emily stared, then closed her eyes.

She could just _tell_ that things were going to get even more annoying.

And the fucking Chief Director was undoubtedly going to make that much worse when she _finally_ decided to get in contact.

"Let's talk, shall we?" Saurial said brightly, moving to the table and pulling out a chair, then dropping into it with her tail over the arm. "We have a lot to cover."

Gritting her teeth, Emily decided that she'd listen first, and shoot later.

Possibly quite a lot.

It was that sort of a day.


	10. DemonStration

"How are you feeling now?"

Taylor raised her head from where she'd been hanging it over the side of the sofa, her feet propped up on the back of the furniture, while getting a new perspective on the world as she thought. Sometimes it helped, she'd found years ago. Now, she smiled at the upside-down, mildly concerned, and somewhat amused face of her dad, who was standing watching her and holding two cups.

"Things are still sinking in," she replied after a moment, setting half a dozen large houseflies to orbiting his head in a neat formation, which made him twitch, then sigh. "I mean, I'm a Parahuman! I didn't expect _that!_ "

"I doubt _anyone_ expected _anything_ that happened today," he smiled, putting one of the cups down on the floor next to her head, then sitting down opposite her. The scent of mint-infused hot chocolate wafted past her nose, bringing back memories of better times with both her parents and causing her to quickly spin around, sit up properly, then lean down and retrieve the drink. She tried it, then made an appreciative sound. "I know it took _me_ by surprise."

She giggled a little ruefully.

"I can see that."

They both looked at each other while drinking. Eventually she held the warm cup with both hands and dropped her eyes. "I'm sorry, Dad."

"About what?"

"Everything. I should have told you about the bullying a long time ago." She raised her eyes to meet his again. "But after Mom… died..." She swallowed as the words didn't want to come, but he didn't interrupt. "...You…"

She swallowed again, then rubbed a tear from one eye as everything caught up at once. He got up and sat down next to her, putting his cup down, then put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her. "I shut down, I know, Taylor. I'm more sorry for that than I can possibly say. Until today rammed my face into it good and hard I didn't realize how bad things had become for both of us. It's not your fault, believe me. It's mine."

Looking up at him for a second, she shook her head. "No, I was stupid. I should have asked for help. Or gone directly to the cops, or… _something_."

He stroked her hair. "You're fifteen, Taylor. You have every right to expect that the adults around you would help. Me, or the teachers. Especially the teachers. That's their _job_. And it's mine too. I let you down, I know, but I hope you can find it in you to forgive me eventually. But the school… what they did, or didn't do..." He gritted his teeth, clearly trying to stay calm. "I cannot _believe_ that they would let something like this go on for so long. Heads will roll, believe me."

"I think Saurial is going to make sure of that," she pointed out with a small smile. "She didn't seem too pleased about things."

"No, that she didn't," he agreed soberly.

They were silent for a while, just watching the forty flies she now had doing an intricate aerial ballet in the middle of the room, the patterns becoming more and more complex as she got used to this bizarre power. The steady droning was oddly calming she thought.

"It's going to take some time for us to rebuild our relationship to what it should be," he said after a couple of minutes, talking quietly and still watching the flies. "I betrayed your trust and I'll understand if you have trouble letting things go back to what they used to be. All I ask is that you let me do what I can to make it up to you."

Taylor glanced at him. He looked worried.

She sighed. "I was as much to blame for a lot of it as you are, Dad. I kept secrets I probably shouldn't have, which didn't help. If Saurial hadn't pulled me out of that… place..."

Trailing off as she remembered the stench and the darkness for a moment, she cleared her throat, then continued, "… god knows what would have happened. But I don't think it would have worked out so well. She more or less said as much. These powers..."

Tapping the side of her head, she shrugged. "It's weird, and _really_ hard to explain, but if I can do all this _now_ with them almost turned off, I hate to think what it would have been like with them going full on without any warning. I can sort of remember a short period where that was happening before she did whatever she did and it was _horrible_."

His arm around her shoulders tightened, pulling her into his side. "But it's not like that now?" he asked, sounding concerned.

"No." She smiled at him. "Like I said, it's really hard to explain. But it's also the coolest thing ever." Holding out one finger, she landed a fly on the end of it. "This is so _easy_ to do." She made it wave one leg at him, then do a little dance, before it flew away again. "One insect, or all the insects… it's all just as easy. And it feels completely natural, like I've always been able to do it, at this point. After only a few hours."

"Incredible," he said softly, staring at the flies, then looking down at the column of spiders that came out from under the sofa between their feet, marched in perfectly synchronized steps into the middle of the room, formed into ranks, and saluted them with a foreleg. "Although I have to say that's just disturbing..."

She giggled. "I can understand that, but it's also so much fun." The spider battalion started doing a square dance, which made him stare, then snicker. "I need some music to set this too. I could put it on YouTube and make a fortune!"

"That's… _one_ idea," he admitted a little doubtfully, making her laugh.

After a moment, he asked, "Have you gotten anywhere with seeing through them yet?"

"Sort of. It's still really weird, I think insect senses are _very_ different from ours. Taste and smell seem to work pretty well, hearing is… odd… but I'm slowly getting used to it. Vision is complicated. But I think I can probably do it when I figure it out. And there are other senses too, like…" She frowned. "What's that one where you know where your hand is without looking at it?"

He thought for a moment. "Proprioception, I think?"

" _That's_ it. I knew I'd heard it somewhere. Yeah, I've got that with these guys too, which is just _weird_." Closing her eyes, she pointed at one fly which moved out of formation and buzzed around the room, her finger following it precisely the entire time. "I can tell exactly where every single one is and how far away at the same time."

"Unbelievable," he breathed in astonishment.

She opened her eyes and grinned at him. "I know, right?" Reaching down she picked up the manual Saurial had given her and held it up. "This thing has so much information in it about powers you wouldn't believe it. It's taught me a lot already and I'm only about a hundred pages in."

He took it from her and leafed through a few pages, reading a passage here and there. Some of the things just in the first chapter were more than a little disturbing, she knew, having found the description of what actually made powers work _very_ weird. And disquieting. The thought that there was some gigantic alien biocomputer thing somewhere in another parallel world linked directly to her own mind was…

…

More than bizarre.

Oddly enough, once she'd read that part, had a minor panic attack about the very concept, calmed down again, and sort of poked her power a few times, she got the definite impression that this _Shard_ thing was watching her to see what happened next. Taylor had no idea _how_ she got that idea, but it was real. She was going to have to mention it to Saurial. The book said that Shards could, eventually, gain a level of true sapience, but also that most of them weren't at that stage. It took something special to make it happen.

Funnily enough, the concept didn't worry her as much as it probably should have done.

If anything, the sensation at the back of her mind was slightly comforting, like she had something looking out for her. How much was her imagination and how much was real she had no idea at all, but the concept wouldn't go away.

Her father flipped pages, making odd expressions as he read. Eventually he looked up. "Jesus Christ," he whispered in shock.

"I know, right?" Taylor half-shrugged, both hands wrapped around her nearly empty hot chocolate. "it's crazy, but from what I can tell it's real."

"How the _hell_ did those people figure all this out?" he asked in a stunned voice, flipping through more pages. "There's… god only knows how much information in here. What these Shards are, where they came from, and doesn't _that_ terrify me, what they want, how they work… I doubt the PRT or anyone else knows even a small fraction of this. I've never even _heard_ of almost any of it, and the bits I _have_ heard about are the sort of thing conspiracy nuts on the internet babble about."

"Dunno," she replied with a shake of her head. "But from what I can work out, my self from another universe is pretty smart. And has some freaky powers." She smiled for a moment. "I bet the PRT would pay anything you asked for even half that info."

"Undoubtedly," he nodded absently, scanning a chapter half-way through the book, then dropping it to his legs and staring off into space for a moment with an expression of awed horror. "Christ. If _any_ of this is true..."

"We've been under alien attack for nearly thirty years and no one knows about it," she finished quietly.

"Yes." They exchanged a glance, then went back to watching her arthropod armies on manoeuvres.

"I hope Saurial and her friends know what to do about it," he finally said.

"Me too." 

* * *

Max looked at James.

James looked back.

Neither one of them spoke.

One last echoing drop of water from somewhere that didn't exist made both men twitch slightly, before they realized that the room had, completely silently and without fuss, reverted to normal. The air of completely alien _otherness_ evaporated without trace, normal city sounds from far below coming faintly to them through the now-visible windows. Each shivered slightly as they found themselves, somehow, feeling that they were back in the real world. Or possibly, based on what they'd heard, a much more limited version of the _true_ real world, something that a mere human mind could handle without breaking utterly.

Both knew they'd remember the experience of the last half hour to their dying day, whether they wanted to or not.

Ultimately their gazes moved to the documentation Saurial, the single most terrifying person either one of them had ever even dreamed of, had left after her conversation with them. It was sitting in the middle of his desk, next to a box about six inches high and a foot square. Eventually Max reached out and picked up the apparently thin booklet and read the cover. Then he turned a few pages, noticing almost without surprise that there were far, far more of these than should fit.

He read a couple of passages, shuddered, and put the thing down again like it had nibbled his fingers.

"I'm not sure I want to know what's in that," James commented uneasily, watching him. His voice was hoarse, like he was suppressing some deep emotion even he didn't recognize.

Max sympathized mightily.

"Understandable," he replied, clearing his throat. "Do you believe her?"

James met his eyes again.

"Unfortunately..." His colleague swallowed hard. "Yes. Every word."

"I was afraid you'd say that."

"What do we do?"

With a deep sigh, Max pushed the book away from him, feeling like it was looking at him and judging him. "Exactly what she told us to do."

"It will ruin us."

" _She_ will _destroy_ us _._ "

They met each other's eyes again. James slowly nodded.

"No way to fight back?"

"What do _you_ think?" Max muttered.

There was silence for a few seconds. "I think we got the only warning we're going to get, from someone who could probably threaten Satan himself and make it stick," James said in the end, sounding like he meant it. Max merely nodded.

Reaching out, he retrieved the box she'd left behind and removed the lid. Inside were a number of bound stacks of paper, each with a professionally laid out title page and a brief summary of the contents. He scanned them all, his eyebrows going higher and higher, before he handed them to the other man, then picked up one of the small vials that accompanied the reports. James was now studying one of them closely.

Max shook the little bottle, watching the several dozen small tablets inside rattle around.

"She's killed the Empire. We can't fight that." James nodded absently, turning a page. "She gave us something very valuable in return, though."

"If this is accurate..." James looked up from the report, which appeared to be full documentation on a totally revolutionary anesthetic compound that Max was pretty sure would make the Medhall scientists look astounded. There were half a dozen other novel drugs documented in the remaining reports, along with samples of each.

"It's worth millions. Possibly hundreds of millions."

"Yeah." Max rolled the bottle around in his hand, listening to the little clicking sounds.

"Why would she give us this?" his subordinate asked, puzzled. "She knows who we are, she knew _everything_ about us. Why shut down the E88, but at the same time set up Medhall to make a profit?"

With a shrug, Max looked up from the bottle in his hand, then put it back in the box. "Mercy, maybe? We can't beat her, we both know that. But she said she didn't _want_ to fight if she didn't have to. And that a lot of people relied on working at Medhall. I guess..." He sighed faintly. "I guess we'll probably never really know. Who can tell what an alien lizard really wants?"

James nodded slowly, then closed the report and put the entire stack back on the desk. "Weird day."

"Fucking right."

"End of an era."

"Yeah."

Max looked out the window. "What was it she said? ' _Play nice and you get to live...'_ "

"I think she meant it."

"I'm fucking _certain_ she did. And I have a lot of problems with most of this. On the other hand, I know when to fight back, and when to accept that you _can't_ fight back. This is one of those times." He sighed faintly. "Strange days indeed. On the other hand, though, if she's right about powers and what the cause of them is..." Both of them glanced at the book and shuddered. "Better to let some things go and still have a world to live in, right?"

James nodded silently. Max recognized the expression of one who had had their entire worldview turned upside down in no time at all. He was wearing the same one.

After a minute or so, he chuckled a little.

"What?" The other man raised an eyebrow.

"I was just thinking…" He grinned. "I bet Piggot has an even worse day than we've had..."

As James started laughing, almost despite himself, Max picked up the phone to start the work of dismantling the more obvious parts of the Empire Eighty Eight. In a way, it didn't really bother him since he'd never been invested in the rhetoric and belief, only the power it brought. James and some of the others were closer to true believers. Even so, the other man seemed to have accepted the concept that sometimes, it didn't matter what you believed, only what _was_.

He was going to have trouble with some of them, but he could handle it. He'd have to.

He had no intention of _ever_ meeting Saurial again if he could possibly avoid it. 

* * *

Once the vast Dragon had vanished, Kenta slid down the wall to sit at the bottom, staring into the huge, empty, and dimly lit space he was currently trapped in.

He had not enjoyed the past however long it had been.

Nothing he'd learned had made him happy in any way. Feeling like an ant next to an elephant wasn't enormously enjoyable either. Ever since he'd got his powers, he'd _known_ he was the most dangerous person around. He'd rebuilt himself around that knowledge. Endbringers aside, there was nothing and no one who could stop him once he decided to do something. He'd proven than on more than one occasion. Even the cursed Yangban, demons take them, had ultimately been unable to hold him. And one day, he'd told himself, he'd make them pay for what they'd done.

But next to the Dragon…

Even Leviathan didn't produce such a feeling of helpless awe in him.

Kenta had fought the Endbringer for hours, bringing ruin to his homeland. All for nothing in the end, the damn creature was still out there, but even so, he'd fought it, single handed, to a draw.

No one else had ever done that.

But next to the Dragon…

He knew, just _knew_ , that the great entity could have squashed him like a man stepping on a grape. Leviathan elicited terror, fury, despair, determination…

The _Dragon_ brought an aura of size and invincibility that put anything else he'd ever experienced to shame.

And it had told him, very plainly and evenly, what would happen next. Not to mention more about a threat that made Endbringers look irrelevant than he'd ever wanted to know.

Some of the things he'd learned would have made him rage, under different circumstances. Under _these_ circumstances, he merely listened, thought, and wondered.

Looking down to the side, he reached out and picked up the book that the vast creature had left him, opened it, and began to read.

There was, after all, nothing else to do.

For now. 

* * *

"We're completely cut off," Kurt said, looking around at the people gathered in the room. "Doormaker and Clairvoyant are totally non-responsive. There was no indication beforehand that anything was wrong, right up to the point the Thinkers all failed at once."

"Contessa?" Rebecca asked, glancing at Doctor Mother.

"In a coma, with no indication when or even if she will recover," the older woman said, her normal calm a little frazzled after the bizarre few hours they'd been having. "As is Eidolon. None of my tests can determine what happened or why." She shook her head. "I can only assume it was an attack of some form but there is insufficient data to posit a cause or a perpetrator."

"Scion, maybe?"

Kurt and Doctor Mother exchanged a glance, then both shrugged.

"I think it unlikely. The entire event is peculiar, since it's managed to completely shut us down with minimal casualties. I would have expected Scion, if he ever decided to attack, to have simply wiped us out." The woman shook her head. "This is far too subtle. Entities don't, in general, do subtle. They don't need to, and they care nothing for human life."

"I'd have to agree," Kurt nodded. "It's like someone wanted to trap us here but not really hurt anyone."

"What about David and Contessa?" Rebecca demanded. "Or the other people affected by… whatever the hell this is?"

"Collateral damage, I suspect," he replied. "Not deliberate targets. I think that whatever it was somehow disabled Thinker abilities, possibly globally, all at once. Whether it was targeted specifically at us alone, or _all_ Thinkers, I don't know. Since we can't contact Earth Bet or any other world, we have no way to find out until, or unless, whoever or whatever did this stops doing it."

"Did it affect you?" she asked, inspecting him carefully. "Your own ability is in the range of what seems to have been affected."

The Number Man shrugged slightly. "I can't come up with any answers to this, if that's what you're asking. When it happened, there was..." He trailed off, apparently trying to describe something indescribable. "The numbers went peculiar," he finally said.

"Which numbers?"

"All of them."

She raised her eyebrows as he looked back evenly.

"Which means?"

"I have no idea. But the numbers..." He sighed. "Something _happened_ to mathematics. Everywhere."

"That doesn't make any sense at all," she said after a few seconds of thought.

"I know. But it happened." He looked slightly apologetic and very confused.

"And in the meantime, we have no idea what the fuck is happening anywhere else," Rebecca growled.

"Correct." He almost smiled. "An elegantly efficient method of taking us out of circulation in one shot. And well timed, too, as your double was here for debriefing at the same time it all happened. So the PRT is currently leaderless, which is probably causing some odd effects."

"Oh, fuck it," Rebecca grumbled. "Who could even _do_ this?"

"I have no idea," Doctor Mother replied. "Nor do I know _how_ it was done."

"Another Entity?"

The other woman pondered the question from Kurt. "Possible, I suppose, as they might well have this sort of ability, but again, it seems oddly humane all things considered."

The three people, the only functioning members of Cauldron's inner circle, spent a considerable time discussing everything they could think of, but in the end couldn't come up with anything else to do but wait and see what happened next. 

* * *

Legend landed on the roof of a building some distance from the New York Protectorate headquarters, then looked a little shiftily around, checking for cameras, people with telescopes, paparazzi, or any other observers. When he was satisfied he was completely alone, he said "Door to Cauldron Headquarters."

Nothing happened.

Again.

Looking around again, just in case the portal had appeared behind him, he sighed.

"What the _hell_ is going _on?_ " he asked the wind, which didn't seem inclined to answer.

When he'd tried it again a couple of times, to no more effect than the first time, or the fiftieth, that he'd attempted to make contact with Rebecca and the others since all this began, he shook his head in confused irritation and worry and lifted off.

Hopefully whatever it was that was causing Thinkers all over the planet to suddenly find themselves gibbering nonsense would stop and he would be able to get in touch with the others. But until then, he had a job to do, which was only becoming stranger by the hour. 

* * *

Saurial looked around at the people gathered in the secure conference room, a faint smile on her face as she did so, then glanced at the camera that was mounted on the wall. Emily could swear she winked at it.

Both her sister and her cousin took up positions on either side of and behind her, like honor guards, their attention fixed on everyone present with an unnerving intensity. Metis also glanced at the camera, smiled a little, and went back to observing everything.

Emily was starting to get a feeling that something else than the obvious was going on, but what she didn't know. What she _did_ know was that she was worried, apprehensive, and very annoyed.

More or less normal, in fact.

"Well, then," Saurial finally said, taking her hat off and spinning it around on one finger. "Welcome, everyone. Good of you to join us."

"I believe _you_ joined _us_ ," Armsmaster said surprisingly calmly.

She grinned. "Either works. I take it that you have made those three little idiots comfortable in the cells?"

He sighed a little as everyone else listened. "I wouldn't say they are _comfortable_ , as such, but they aren't going to go anywhere. None of them are particularly pleased about that."

"No, I imagine they wouldn't be," the lizard girl replied, putting her hat on the table. "I suspect they'll be even less pleased later when all the charges are worked out."

"Most likely not," he agreed soberly.

Having had enough, Emily shouted, "What in god's name is going on? Who _are_ you people!?" She half-stood from the chair she'd sat in, resting her weight on her clenched fists and glaring daggers at the insouciant reptile, who merely regarded her with the same, very irritating, small smile. Apparently entirely unconcerned or even impressed by her best gaze of death.

"I've had a _very_ long and difficult day, found out that one of my Wards is quite likely going to be charged with attempted murder, _and_ that her behavior was not only known by her alleged handler but _covered up_ by the same person, seen a gang war start for reasons so far unknown then get stopped by similarly bizarre methods, and on top of that we have a major biological contamination going on at one of the largest schools in the entire city," she went on at slightly lower volume but even greater intensity, the sheer frustration of the day finally boiling over.

"Not to mention that the person at the top of the entire PRT is apparently off on some mission so secret that even _her own staff_ don't know about it, so I can't let her know about any of this, which is going to bite me in the ass sooner or later, I can just feel it," she added viciously. "And, finally, the entire fucking state of affairs seems to have come about due to the intervention of three capes no one has ever heard of before, who have powers that no one knows about either, and somehow knowledge of things that they _should not_ have. So forgive me if I'm a little short tempered."

She ran down, breathing hard, and feeling her heart rate running at slightly worrying levels. Blood was pounding in her ears and she felt a little ill, not surprising since she was due for dialysis shortly and this amount of exertion on top of the stress of the day was a bit much.

"I understand your worries, Director," Saurial said after a few seconds. She didn't seem particularly surprised by Emily's outburst, although everyone else was staring at her now, not the lizards. Neither did she seem upset by the shouting. "Please sit down and relax, and I'll explain. Your health isn't the best and this much stress isn't good for you."

"What do _you_ know about my health?" Emily demanded, although she did sit down again, feeling a little light-headed.

"I know what your injuries were after Ellisburg, Director," the reptile replied in an oddly gentle voice. Emily froze. "I know what happened with Nilbog, I know what happened to your squad, I know who abandoned you in the process, I know the resulting psychological trauma you suffered as a result, and I know the prejudices you hold as a direct result of all that." She smiled again in a rather more sympathetic manner as Emily just stared at her, not knowing what to feel. "I even know that your favorite color is silver."

There was complete silence in the room for some seconds, everyone looking between the two, who were staring at each other. Emily in total shock, and Saurial apparently patiently waiting for a response.

Eventually the lizard-girl added, "I also know that you are an extremely competent and dedicated individual, with a considerable grasp of personal honor despite your own issues, and have done your duty to the PRT and everyone else for years even with your disabilities and hang-ups."

Emily simply stared for some time, trying to think what to say. Either there had been a _massive_ security breach, or this was evidence of an extremely disturbing Parahuman ability. Pre- or post-cognition might explain it, but it would have to be far past anything she was aware of.

Licking her lips a little nervously, despite herself, she opened her mouth, then closed it again. Should she declare a major M/S event and have the entire building quarantined? Was it, in fact, too late for that to even have a hope of working? Or was there something else at play?

While she was trying to work out the best method to proceed, Armsmaster stuck his oar in. "How, exactly, do you know all that?" he asked suspiciously. "Assuming any of it is accurate. Have you hacked the PRT computers?"

Glancing at him, Emily realized that he might have suggested another possible route for such information to get to these people, whoever they were.

Saurial shook her head with a grin.

"No, nothing that simple," she replied, "Although in a way, my source of information is even simpler."

"And that source is?" Emily finally asked, her voice harsh.

"As it happens, long contact with Emily Piggot, Director of the PRT ENE," Saurial chuckled as everyone looked at her in bemusement and disbelief. "And many of the other staff of the PRT and Protectorate." She looked around at the faces showing a range of odd expressions. "Not this one, of course. Our PRT and Protectorate. But the similarities are remarkable, I have to say."

Again, no one seemed to know what to say for some time. In the end it was Triumph who spoke first. "What does that mean?" he asked, apprehension and curiosity warring in his voice.

Saurial glanced at him, then looked around the table. Most of the people present seemed unsure whether to reach for a weapon, or wait. Emily herself was restraining herself from pulling her sidearm and pointing it at the lizard with a great effort of will, helped by the sinking certainty it wouldn't actually help.

"I suppose I shouldn't keep amusing myself too much," she finally grinned. "All right. Let's see how this goes."

She leaned forward, many of the others doing the same thing unconsciously. "As you know, my name is Saurial. This is my cousin Metis, and my sister Raptaur. We represent the Family."

"Who are?" Miss Militia inquired slowly, her eyes full of worry.

"A group based in Brockton Bay. We've been around for some time, in fact. There are… a number of us," the reptilian female replied.

"We've never heard of you," Dauntless put in.

"Not surprising," Saurial said, looking at him. "I didn't say it was _this_ Brockton Bay, did I?"

"Which means?" Armsmaster asked slowly.

"We're not from around here," she responded calmly. "As I may have mentioned to you a while ago. We're from another world, basically."

Yet again, everyone stared at her. Then each other.

"They always look like that," Metis said with a slight laugh in her voice, breaking the silence. "It's hilarious."

"Be polite, Metis," Saurial admonished. "Humans take a little while to get used to new ideas sometimes."

Her cousin shrugged, still grinning. "I know, but _look_ at them!"

"Another world?" Velocity echoed, not looking away from Saurial. "You mean like Aleph?"

"Ah…" Saurial wiggled a hand from side to side. "In a way, but not really. It's a complex subject."

"We're going to need more than that," Emily growled.

"Sure." Saurial nodded. "The multiverse is weirder than any of you realize, and in some ways we're one of the weirdest parts of it." She shrugged with her head cocked a little to the side. "Or so I've been told."

"Why do I believe that?" Assault mumbled, making her snicker.

"It would take days to explain fully even if you had the background to understand the math," Saurial went on after a moment, "which you don't. But very briefly, reality is much, much more complex than most people ever realize. You are aware of one form of parallel world, to put it into terms you'd recognize. Earth Aleph and Earth Bet are only two of a _very_ large number, a near infinity in fact, of alternate timelines that can be separated along one possible… hmm, axis, I suppose… but there are a near infinite number of _those_ too. One of the larger separators can be termed, and usually is, a reality strand. It is a superset of something parallel timelines are a very small subset of."

"The multiverse theory," Armsmaster said when she fell silent for a moment. "I am familiar with aspects of this."

"It's not entirely correct, but not entirely incorrect either," Saurial nodded, everyone else hanging onto her words with fascination. "The entire thing is more of an omniverse than a multiverse. Like I said, it would take literally days to explain it even if you had the math to understand it. Very few people do."

"And you do?" he asked a little skeptically.

She looked somewhat smug. "We _invented_ a lot of it, so yes," she replied. "Let's put that to one side for now and just accept that we know a _lot_ more about this sort of thing than anyone on your world does. And that we have the technology and ability to make use of certain theories about the nature of reality you aren't currently equipped to deal with."

"Which allows you to come from some other version of our world to here?" Battery asked, sounding confused but intrigued.

"Yep. It's a lot like this one, but it's not actually a parallel timeline in the sense that Aleph is, it's… well, difficult to fully explain, in fact," the lizard-girl replied with a nod. "We've been traveling around for a while now, just exploring. Seen some really interesting things, too. And quite a few versions of home, some of them… not ideal."

"We've learned a lot of useful information," Raptaur added in her deep voice. "And met a number of variants of people in this room on more than one occasion."

"Sometimes that went very weird," Metis snickered. "This is one of the more sensible reactions, to be honest."

Everyone exchanged glances. It sounded, even taking Parahuman powers into account, crazy.

"You can prove this?" Emily finally asked, not sure if she really _wanted_ to find out. But she couldn't help herself.

"Depends on what you would accept as proof," Saurial replied. "But I've got a few things that might help you believe me." She lifted her hat, which she hadn't touched the entire time since she'd put it on the table, to reveal a fairly ordinary wallet that hadn't been there before. Picking it up as they all watched, she flipped it open, then pulled out a seemingly endless chain of cards in a transparent holder. "Hmm. No, no, definitely no, hey, I was looking for that one! No, maybe, no," she mumbled, flipping through them rapidly. Emily sighed. Whatever else these bizarre people were, annoying was definitely part of it.

"Aha!" Saurial pulled out one of the cards and slid it across the table to her. Emily picked it up and looked at it, then raised her eyes to stare at the reptilian cape.

"Brockton Bay Central Library?" she asked with a sigh.

"Yep. But look at the date!"

She did. "2019." Again, she stared at Saurial who was looking expectant. "You expect me to believe you can travel in time too?"

"Oh, no, time travel is a _really_ bad idea," Saurial hastily replied. The lizard looked around the table, meeting each person's eyes in turn. " _Never_ travel in time. Trust me on this, it _never_ ends well. Got me?" Her voice was severe enough that several of them involuntarily nodded, making Emily glare at them all.

"No, it's just that sometimes alternative universes aren't temporally synced with ours, so you can find yourself in a different year than you were aiming for," she explained, taking the card back and returning it to the wallet. "OK, let's try another one… Yep, this should help." She handed over another one.

This time Emily recognized her own signature with a nasty start. Inspecting it closely she realized it really _was_ hers, every last little detail was perfect. It was an associate PRT membership card with every possible endorsement on it, something she'd never seen before. "This goes with it," Saurial added helpfully, passing her another laminated card.

Emily, slightly reluctantly, took it.

She read it.

 **To whomever poor bastard they've taken an interest in:**

 **For the sake of your own sanity, believe whatever they tell you, it's easier. And if you want to sleep at night, _DO NOT_ ask them to show you how they do it. If you're _really_ unlucky, _they will._**

 **Don't say I didn't warn you.**

 **Emily Piggot, Director, PRT ENE.**

Again, the signature was definitely hers. And it had her own thumbprint on it, which she was familiar enough with to be fairly certain was indeed hers. It was with a sinking sensation that she suspected if it was checked, it would match perfectly.

"She's a little rude in my opinion, but she had a lot to deal with when she gave me that," Saurial explained when Emily looked at her in disbelief. "We get on pretty well, really."

"This… How… I mean, where..." Emily tried several times, then gave up.

"I can show you more if you want, but if that's not enough all I could do is take you through our wormhole and show you the other side," Saurial shrugged. "For a number of reasons that's not an ideal solution as far as we're concerned." She took both cards back and put them away, Emily not resisting. Everyone else was silently watching with various expressions.

"You could do the thing," Metis suggested as the wallet was, somehow, vanished.

"Not a bad idea," Raptaur rumbled. "Director Piggot always seems to like the thing."

"Hey… not a bad idea," Saurial mused, looking at her relatives while the others felt worried. "And we were going to have to deal with him anyway."

"Want to see how fast we can wrap this all up?" Metis asked, smiling deviously.

"Speed run?"

"We haven't done one for ages," the black lizard nodded. "Bet we can beat our high score."

"We'd need to make a list of targets first, and we might need to call in some help," Raptaur commented. Emily was getting a sinking sensation again, like events were spiraling out of what little control they'd had up until now.

"Ianthe would be up for it, she always is, and the others would probably want to join in too," Saurial commented, rubbing her scaly chin in thought. "Plus we need to talk to a few more people too, maybe help clean up Winslow… Sure, let's do that."

"DO WHAT?" Emily exploded, feeling that things were getting out of hand.

Saurial smiled viciously at her, making her recoil. "We're going to give you a little present, Director. One you'll like, based on other similar experiences we've had in the past." She looked at Raptaur while everyone in the room tensed, putting their hands on any weapons they had. That smile was… unnerving.

"Do it," the smallest reptile commanded.

"On it," the largest one said, then vanished. 

* * *

Lisa moaned again, rubbing her temples with both hands. Her head was absolutely _killing_ her, even after a fairly close to dangerous mix and quantity of a number of different painkillers. She'd regained consciousness on the floor after passing out again having hung up on Coil, her phone next to her, and when the world stopped wibbling around and changing colors, had rubbed at the uncomfortable sensation on her face to find it was dried blood. It had taken nearly half an hour to recover enough to even attempt to stand, and another ten minutes to be able to stagger into the bathroom and look in the mirror.

Her eyes were massively bloodshot, her power helpfully pointing out that several capillaries in them had burst, which also explained the orange-yellow tint she was seeing over everything. Oddly enough, her ability wasn't causing her any more pain at the moment although she couldn't work out if that was just because her head hurt worse than she'd ever experienced before _already_ and simply couldn't hurt more than that.

When she'd washed most of the blood off her face, which mostly seemed to have come from her nose, although there was a little that seemed to have come out her left eye's tear ducts too, her damn power added a little nugget of data to say that she'd experienced a near-lethal rise in blood pressure. It seemed annoyingly coy on _why_ , but then using her power on herself had always tended to give weird and frustrating results anyway. It was a small miracle that she'd gotten this much.

' _What the_ ** _fuck_** _happened?_ ' she wondered in a blurry manner, rubbing her head again. It was throbbing unmercifully and what she _really_ wanted to do was pass out again. Or possibly go to a hospital _then_ pass out. She was genuinely worried that she'd sustained permanent damage. ' _Why did I see_ ** _teeth?_** _'_

That part had come back to her fairly quickly.

Her power was totally silent on the matter, somehow giving the impression it was worried.

Which was just insane.

She could remember talking to Coil, trying to figure out more about those weird reptilian mystery capes at Winslow, then…

 _Teeth_

 _Huge_

 _Pain_

 _Nothing_

As she remembered, her brain throbbed again, making her hastily try not to think about it.

The pain diminished slightly.

 _Hack PRT conference room_

"What?" she said out loud, startled despite the agony.

Her power prodded her again, unprompted.

Apparently it wanted her to poke around on the PRT's internal network. Why, she had no idea, but for once it was suggesting something without her actively trying to find it out. This was sufficiently unusual that even through her pain she reached for her laptop, which was still on the table where she'd left it when whatever happened, happened.

Blinking a little unevenly, she poked around on the thing for thirty seconds or so, quickly cracking the latest security on the PRT server, then navigated the internal security system to the largest and most secure conference room in the building a few miles away. When the picture from the camera at the end of the room came on screen, she stared in amazement.

Every single Protectorate cape in the city was there, as was the Director herself, half her high level staff, and those three fucking lizards.

All of whom were smiling in a strange way. It was almost familiar to her for some reason she couldn't place.

When Saurial looked _directly_ at the camera, somehow giving the impression of meeting her eyes, then _winked_ at her, Lisa nearly had a heart attack.

Moments later, Metis also managed the same feat, before smirking in a knowing manner.

' _Oh, Jesus, can they_ ** _see_** _me?'_ she frantically wondered in horror.

Her power didn't answer. It seemed to be focused on the laptop as if waiting for something.

After a moment or two where she considered disconnecting just in case, Lisa decided to keep watching. A few keys were prodded, bringing in the audio from the hacked camera, which would have _infuriated_ the people in the room if they realized.

". _..all the charges are worked out._ " Saurial was speaking as the audio feed cut in. Lisa listened with interest and growing shock despite the constant background pain as the reptiles told the heroes a _very_ strange story.

What eventually happened took her utterly by surprise, as it apparently did everyone else.

Unlike them, after gaping in shock for several seconds, she dissolved in gleeful laughter, her pain completely forgotten. 

* * *

****  
_**"Time to go, Mr Calvert,"**_ a voice said in Thomas's ear, so unexpectedly he screamed like a five year old girl and nearly shat himself. There was a sensation unlike anything he'd ever experienced, and when he regained his equilibrium, he found himself still sitting at his desk, gaping in horror at pretty much the entire local PRT senior staff and Protectorate members. 

* * *

Emily stared in shock as _something_ happened in the largest clear area in the room. There was suddenly a desk where there hadn't been one moments earlier, with a very expensive chair behind it. And in the chair was a costumed man, tall and remarkably skinny, somehow giving off the impression of total bewilderment and complete horror even though his costume covered everything.

The black material had a white stylized snake wrapped around it from the left leg all the way to the head. This, along with the build, sparked a memory in her, as it apparently did in several of the others present. Miss Militia was pointing a gun at him already, although she seemed a little uncertain.

Raptaur was standing behind the seated man, her arms folded and an expression of satisfaction on her face. Saurial nodded once, then stood and walked over, moving to stand next to the new arrival, who only now seemed to have recovered enough to even look away from them to her.

"Director Piggot, as a little gift from the Family to you, I would like to present you with the super-villain Coil. Entirely intact and undamaged." She grinned widely, putting her hand on his head, then gently digging her claws into the material of his costume. "Otherwise known as..."

She yanked upwards.

Emily stared, then her eyes narrowed. A wave of pure fury went through her at the recognition of the man blinking at her like he couldn't decide if this was real or not.

" _Thomas Calvert_ ," she snarled.

"Thomas, as you so rightly put it, Calvert," Saurial agreed happily.

Calvert met her eyes, and flinched. He reached under his desk. Raptaur leaned over his shoulder and gently, for her, held his hand. It stopped moving like she'd cast it in concrete, no matter how he strained.

"I think not, Mr Calvert," she said quietly into his ear. He shuddered at the sound of the near-hiss.

"I can explain," the man finally said, rather weakly.

"Oh, I am _very_ sure you will explain, Thomas," Emily growled, making him pale and Saurial look amused. "Over and over again."

"You may want to ask him about Cauldron," Saurial suggested. Calvert twitched violently, and to Emily's bemusement, Battery visibly reacted too, making several people including her husband look oddly at her.

Emily rubbed her forehead. She somehow knew this latest development was going to be… very difficult.

Well, hopefully she'd have something useful to report to Costa-Brown when the damn woman finally got in touch. It could only help. 

* * *

****  
"I owe you guys one," Lisa chortled, sipping from a glass of a very good wine as she watched what had become her very favorite show ever. Lifting the glass she toasted the screen, and was only mildly surprised when Metis glanced at the camera and grinned.

Behind the huge black lizard, considerable chaos was going on. She settled in to enjoy it.


	11. Profit

"This thing is really cool," Amy said happily, peering through her new telescope at the Rig, which was just visible on the horizon out Vicky's bedroom window.

The sisters had gone home after the event at Winslow, on the advice if not direct order of their aunt once the requirement for her healing and Vicky's abilities had vanished. Miss Militia had thanked them, and even Armsmaster had appeared quite approving, which was something that for some reason made them both quite pleased and a little amused.

Vicky had also been thanked again by the aircrew she'd saved from an unpleasant fate, the three men and one woman apparently rather impressed and definitely very relieved that they'd made it. Apparently her sister had some new fans, which she could easily understand.

Amy herself had been quite enjoying herself, all things considered, running around making sure everyone involved was fine. She'd offered to help with the contamination at the school when she'd overheard the CDC guys talking to one of the senior PRT staff on site, and they'd told her that they'd bear it in mind once they had a better idea of what exactly was in there. Again, she got the impression that her offer had been appreciated, which was nice. And it was completely unlike the normal hospital work, something that cheered her up. She'd been in a very good mood since dropping Victor, or thinking back on it, for some time before that, which somewhat puzzled her but was also a considerable relief from the low-level funk she'd found herself in more and more in the last few months.

Vicky's impulsiveness at absconding from school to poke into the Winslow situation, even though at the time she'd thought it was a bad idea, had actually turned out to be much more useful that it had initially seemed. And she'd gotten some nice toys out of it into the bargain...

She zoomed in, holding the device steady against her shoulder by the stock, and prodded various buttons on it. One of them made it make a faint sound then the image became rock-steady, clearing up to the point she could easily make out one of the PRT VTOL aircraft landing on the top deck. A little more work made the telescope zoom to the limit, at which point she could read the aircraft ID number with no effort, and make out the faces of the various people surrounding it. "Wow. Stabilized and everything." She prodded other buttons, watching as the view changed. "Night vision too. And I think this one is thermal imaging! Incredible. You've got to try this!"

Lowering it she looked over her shoulder, to where Vicky was poking through the other things they'd confiscated from Victor. The coil of rope had been put back in the bag, and the blonde was currently playing with a very high end butterfly knife, trying to flick the blade out and back in again. Amy winced at the result, which showed that her sister's invulnerability was the only thing saving her from losing a finger.

"Not like that," she sighed, putting the scope down having turned it off and walking over to her sister, then nabbing the knife from her hand.

"Hey!" Vicky said, surprised. "I was using that."

"Badly," Amy snarked, then got the right grip on the knife. She flipped her wrist, grinning at both the metallic clacking sound as the weapon unfolded, and at her sister's eyes widening. "This is how you do it." She quickly ran the thing through a series of opening and closing moves, ending up holding it in an overhand grip across her body.

"Holy… shit." Vicky gaped at her. "How in god's name do _you_ know how to do _that,_ Ames?"

Smirking at the other girl, Amy flipped the weapon open and closed again without looking at it, and replied, "One of the porters at the hospital is incredibly good with knives. I have a feeling he had a misspent youth. He showed me a few things a while ago when I was sort of down and he noticed. It's good practice to keep your hands flexible and your reflexes sharp."

"Amazing," the blonde girl muttered as Amy flicked the knife around some more, then closed it and dropped it into the bag. "Does mom know?"

Amy gave her sister a look. "What do _you_ think?" she said dryly. "How would that go down?"

Vicky nodded slowly, her face sobering. "Yeah, I guess I see what you mean." She hugged Amy for a moment, making the brunette smile to herself. "Sorry, Ames."

"Not your fault, Vicky."

Releasing her, Vicky looked back into the bag, then picked up the knife again and examined it. "Maybe you should carry this just in case?"

"Why? If I'm close enough to a bad guy to stick a knife in him, which by the way is a horrible thing to do, trust me on that, I don't actually _need_ a knife," Amy replied in a reasonable manner. "And if he's further away I can't get him anyway."

"Valid point," her sister nodded. "But you need to show me those tricks. They look really cool."

Amy grinned. "They do, right? Sure, I can do that." Both of them heard the front door open and close fairly loudly, causing her to wince and add, just before Carol shouted their names, "Later. I have a feeling Mom wants a word."

"I do believe you're right, my dear sister," Vicky said with a grimace and a small sigh. "Shall we?"

"May as well. At least Aunt Sarah and Uncle Neil are on our side." The two girls smiled at each other, metaphorically girded their loins, and went to do battle with the Dallon Dragon. 

* * *

Brian looked up from the TV as Lisa came up the stairs in their base, then just stood at the top watching them with an odd smile, even for her, on her face. After a moment Alec also looked over, then exchanged a glance with him.

"Problem, Tats?" the smaller boy asked, almost sounding like he actually was interested.

Lisa kept watching them for a few more seconds before she seemed to reboot and walk over to the kitchen area, opening the fridge and pulling out a can of soda which she opened one-handed. The blonde girl sat down on one of the two stool they had there, sipping her drink. Brian inspected her closely. She looked pale, and her hair was a little damp like she'd washed it and not dried it properly, which was unusual. There were shadows under her eyes as if she hadn't slept properly for a while, which he knew wasn't the case.

Despite the signs of stress and tiredness, she still looked happy in a weird way. He was starting to get worried. While they'd been thrown together more by chance than anything else, on the whole he liked his teammates, even Rachel, who was hard work a lot of the time, and Alec, who was hard work _all_ the time.

They only really had each other, except for him, and Aisha and his dad were… awkward. He'd found himself over the last few months coming to feel quite protective of his team and almost pseudo-family, so seeing the girl look so odd was concerning.

"A… kind of problem," she finally said, putting the half-empty can on the counter-top and staring at it. "And a solution at the same time. Kind of."

"Very precise," Alec snorted, sufficiently interested to pause the game they'd been playing and turn his attention fully to them. "Care to explain?"

"Unlike you to really care," she sniped.

He grinned. "Unlike you to look like the cat dragged you in through the cat-flap after a hard night out," the boy replied, not appearing offended in the slightest. Brian muffled a snicker, since it was largely true if unflattering.

Lisa sighed faintly, but seemed almost amused. Rachel came out of her room a moment later, heading for the fridge with determination, but paused to inspect the other girl.

"You look like shit," she said bluntly, then rummaged around for something to eat, coming up with some cold bacon which she started munching on.

"Thanks, Rachel, love you too," Lisa replied, shaking her head a little. "Everyone's here. Good."

"That sounds… ominous," Brian said a little uneasily.

"Depends on your point of view, I guess." Lisa picked up her can and took another drink of it, then held it between both hands and looked at them all. Eventually she seemed to come to a decision. "OK. I need to tell you guys something and I need you to listen carefully while I do. Leave the shouting to afterwards, all right?"

"Oh, great, she's going to tell us she's a mass murderer and is going to kill us all in our sleep," Alec immediately said.

"Only you, Alec," she shot back. "I _like_ the other two."

He gave her a thumb's-up and smiled. Brian shook his head wearily, if those two got started they could keep this up for hours. "Just tell us, Lisa. Alec, shut up."

"Yes, mein boss," the other boy said, saluting him crisply, then slumping back onto the sofa and relaxing. "Proceed, Tats."

She took a breath. Then exhaled slowly. Brian tensed. This could be bad.

"Something happened a little while ago," she began. "Our boss is out of business."

There was a long pause, then Rachel and Alec both started talking loudly. "Quiet!" Brian roared, as Lisa just waited. "Shut up, guys. I want to hear what she's saying."

Somewhat reluctantly on Rachel's part, the strongly built girl glowering at both him and Lisa while eating some more bacon, they complied. He turned back to the blonde. "Explain, please?"

"We were working for Coil," she said calmly, the words making his stomach clench in shock. "He ' _recruited_ ' me at gunpoint and forced me to work for him, then set you guys up as a team with me. About three hours ago, the PRT got him. With some help that I still can't believe, actually, but yeah, he's _fucked_. I've spent the last two and a half hours hacking his entire system and making sure that any links with him were wiped."

They all stared at her in disbelief of varying levels.

"So we're out of a job. That's annoying. I'm no longer in danger of getting killed by a lunatic or his mercs, so that's good. While I was hacking him, I discovered that his base had a self destruct system that could have killed thousands of people if it went off. That's bad. I managed to disable it, then lock out any access to the fucking thing permanently. That's good. His mercs are still in his base and have enough weapons to fight a small war. That's bad." She took a breath as they gaped.

"I also discovered that he had a huge amount of information on other capes and their civilian identities and had set things up so he could easily release it to the public, the bastard. That's very bad. I erased it, just in case. That's good. Then I copied the rest of the data to a cloud storage service and anonymously sent the PRT the link to it, so they can fuck him over properly. That's not only good but _amazingly_ satisfying."

Brian looked at Alec, who looked back, for once seeming not only totally invested in this bizarre conversation but totally taken aback. Rachel seemed so surprised that she'd forgotten to be angry.

"Holy shit," he finally managed to say, rather weakly.

"I know, right? It was worth nearly dying of an aneurysm to see the expression on that fucker's face," she smiled.

"Wait, what?" He snapped his attention back to her. "Aneurysm!? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh, I escaped brain damage by about _that_ much," she replied, oddly serene about the words she was speaking as she held up a hand with finger and thumb almost touching. "Long story, I'll get around to that."

He was about to press for more details when Alec complained, "So we're out of work and broke?"

"We were working for a megalomaniacal super-villain who wanted to run the city if not the country, Alec," she patiently replied. "And liked to torture people for kicks from what I can work out. Not a good man. I hate his fucking guts, in fact. Not working for him is a plus, I promise. And likely to let us live a lot longer."

"Yeah, yeah, Bond villain bad, I get it." The brunet boy looked hard at her. "The point I'm making is, how are we going to get paid now?"

"He has a point, Lisa," Brian put in, still feeling bewildered and as a result not as angry as he somewhat suspected he should be. "I needed that job and the cash, for Aisha if nothing else."

"I need money for the dogs," Rachel growled, finishing her bacon and stealing Lisa's unfinished can of soda, then draining it before crushing the can in her hand and tossing it in the garbage.

Lisa's grin came back, very widely and very smugly. "Oh, did I forget to say that while I was in his computers, I also managed to completely drain his accounts and route the money through half a dozen places to launder it, so I now have nearly seventy percent of his entire fortune?"

Once again, everyone gaped at her in shock.

"It was quite a lot of money," she added helpfully.

They all exchanged a look. "How much?" Brian asked a little suspiciously.

She told him.

He fell over.

Then he stared in horror at her from the floor. "Oh, Jesus, we're going to get killed, you mad woman!" he whispered. "That's too much."

"Nope," she smirked. "Nothing left linking it to him, or us. I made sure of that. Got his online backups, faked orders to his mercs from him to erase the offline ones as part of a security sweep, everything. The service I used is untraceable and very expensive, but guaranteed. The money is clean. You are looking at a very wealthy woman, and I'm not even eighteen yet!"

She seemed, not surprisingly, extremely pleased with herself.

Slowly getting to his feet, he sat down again and just stared at the annoying girl with a mix of horror, awe, and sheer shock. When he glanced at Rachel and Alec, both of them were doing more or less the same thing.

"So what are you going to do for your next trick?" Alec finally asked.

"I'm not sure yet," she shrugged. "Not rob a bank or anything like that, which is probably what Coil would have had us do sooner or later. I never wanted to be a villain in the first place." She looked at them all. "I doubt you guys did either."

Brian shook his head, still rather numb from all the revelations. Alec seemed oddly thoughtful, and Rachel was still staring at Lisa. "Not really, no."

"What about us?" Rachel asked abruptly. "You got rich. Great. We didn't."

Lisa turned to her and her smug grin faded slightly. She inspected the other girl for a moment. Then she looked at the other two.

The grin came back with friends. "I wouldn't say that." She reached into her pocket and pulled out three filing cards, fanning them out in her hand. Plucking one free, she handed it to Rachel, then got up and gave the two boys each one of the remaining two. Brian looked at his while she sat beside him on the sofa.

"What the hell is this?" Rachel asked, sounding confused.

"The account details for your shares of the money," Lisa replied casually, leaning back and looking excessively content.

Brian looked back to the card, then to the irritating girl he suspected was genuinely a good friend despite her mannerisms. "Shares?" he echoed.

"Sure. We're a team, right? We might not have _chosen_ to be, but that's how it worked out. All of us have relied on each other in some pretty strange and dangerous situations. We get on OK despite occasional issues." She shrugged. "I trust you guys about as much as I trust anyone, basically. And I'm many things, but I'm not someone who's going to stab the closest thing I have to friends in the back over money. There's more than enough to go around. Split four ways, we're _all_ still filthy rich." She smirked at him as he looked back, stunned. "What's a few million here or there?"

"Jesus fucking Christ, Lisa," he managed to say after a _long_ pause. Alec didn't seem able to even do that, and Rachel was staring at the other girl with the weirdest look on her face he'd ever seen.

"It'll take a few days for everything to settle down, and there should be some documents waiting for us at the bank by Friday. Debit cards, that sort of thing. All linked to an account that will get topped up from the interest on the main stash, in a way that makes it look completely legit. I even set it up to pay the tax automatically so the IRS should be happy. Those guys don't give a crap what the source of your income is as long as they get their cut." Lisa grinned again. "Basically, none of us need to work again if we don't want to. Just the interest on the capital is enough to live a life of luxury on if we don't go nuts."

He simply shook his head, awestruck all over again. She was a hideously effective person when she set her mind to something, he realized.

"So I can buy a bigger TV if I want?" Alec asked a little suspiciously.

Lisa looked rather obviously at the huge flat-screen TV that dominated most of the loft and raised an eyebrow at him. "If you really feel you need to, sure," she replied a little dubiously. "I have no idea where you'll put it, though. This place isn't _that_ big."

"And why in god's name would you even need something bigger?" Brian asked absently, still inspecting the simple numbers on a piece of card that would change his life completely.

"Hey, they _make_ bigger ones," Alec retorted. "So I _want_ one."

"I've got money to look after the dogs?" Rachel put in, having apparently finally absorbed the new state of things. Lisa turned to her and nodded.

"You can look after _all_ the dogs if you want," she replied with a smile. "I can help you set something up if you'd like."

Rachel looked at her, seeming a little bewildered, then after a few seconds smiled radiantly and nodded. "Thank you," she said quietly, in the most human expression of emotion Brian had ever seen from her.

"You're welcome," Lisa responded, seeming pleased and not in her normal smug manner.

"OK, OK," Brian eventually remarked, putting the card carefully in his pocket then waving his hands. "You've outdone yourself, and I can let the whole Coil thing go even though I'm not happy about it. But… What the fuck actually _happened?_ How did the PRT get him? I'm missing something here."

"Oh, yes, you're missing a lot," she replied, suddenly looking very thoughtful and somewhat apprehensive. "I guess you guys haven't been watching the news?"

"Nope," Alec said, shaking his head. "Something good happen?"

"Did you hear a massive explosion around lunchtime, maybe?" she asked.

"Is _that_ what it was?" Brian inquired, glancing at the other boy, who shrugged. "We had the game up pretty loud, but I thought I heard something odd. Not very close, though."

"Yeah. Huge boom, big mushroom cloud, some Tinker-tech thing of Leet's went up as far as I can find out. I missed it, I was unconscious on the floor in my apartment at the time, but I saw it on the news," the blonde girl confirmed. "It sort of started a gang war. The ABB and the E88 were getting into it, then Lung turned up and smashed things up around Winslow." She spent some ten minutes filling them all in on a whole series of ridiculously unlikely sounding events that seemed to revolve around reptilian capes of all things, and sucked in everyone from New Wave through the Protectorate to Dragon and the PRT.

Brian was completely befuddled by the whole story. Apparently they'd managed to miss some of the most important events in recent history which had taken place only a few miles away, and ended up capturing both the ABB capes and a significant number of the E88 ones, along with a lot of the latter's gang members.

" _Panacea_ took out Victor?" he exclaimed when she got to that part.

"She did, yeah. That girl has been _seriously_ underestimated," Lisa acknowledged, appearing somewhat disturbed. "Trust me, she's a _hell_ of a lot more dangerous than people think she is. In fact, my power is suggesting she may be possibly the most dangerous cape in the entire city if not the country. Like, S class dangerous if she's really pushed."

Brian felt blood drain from his face. "S class?" he choked out. She nodded slowly.

"Oh, yes, really seriously fucking dangerous. A word of advice, don't piss her off. We wouldn't like her when she's angry."

There was silence in the loft for a moment.

"Fuck _me_. Take your eye off the ball and the entire world goes and changes when you're not looking," he finally complained, leaning back on the sofa and staring at the ceiling. "Lizards. I don't believe it."

She got up and retrieved the remote for the TV without saying anything, then changed to the local news channel.

All four of them watched, three with incredulity and Lisa with a thoughtful expression.

After about ten minutes, she quietly said, "Things are going to be very different from now on. I think we should just sit and watch carefully. I don't want to get in between _them_ and anything they're after..."

All three of her team-mates nodded as one. It sounded like wise advice. 

* * *

Alan looked up from staring at the table and thinking as the door opened, revealing Carol Dallon. She came in and sat down in the chair on the other side of the table as the door closed behind her, the PRT trooper who had admitted her pulling it shut. "Hello, Alan," the woman said, sounding worried and looking it too. "Have you spoken to Emma yet?"

"No," he said quietly, feeling bewildered and depressed. "They were still processing her along with the other two when I got here, because all that bizarre shit that happened at Winslow delayed things a lot. I've been going over the reports they let me see." He indicated the paperwork on the table in front of him. "Miss Militia dropped it off. She seems sympathetic, but..." He shrugged hopelessly. "They caught those girls red-handed, and Armsmaster recorded them as good as confessing to the whole damn thing. As much as I want to believe Emma had nothing to do with it, I can't." He put his head in his hands and tried to compose himself. "I don't understand what happened. What am I going to tell Zoe? Or Anne? How could Emma _do_ this? And to Taylor, of all people? That girl is practically family, Emma's known her all her life! She used to call Danny ' _Uncle Danny_ ,' and now she's spent over a _year_ torturing his poor daughter?!"

He raised his head to meet her eyes, the woman appearing sympathetic as well as worried. "What am I going to say to _him?_ He's one of _my_ closest friends, I've known the man since we were kids. _How could this happen?_ "

"I don't know, Alan, but we're going to find out, trust me," she replied softly. "I remember Emma and she always struck me as a nice girl. I don't understand it either. Something _must_ have happened to cause this, people don't change like that out of the blue." She picked up the main folder on the table and scanned the contents as he watched, her eyebrows going up now and then, and a frown steadily growing. "Oh, my god, this is..." Carol turned the page, then winced. "Christ."

Shaking her head, she put the folder down and looked at him. "I won't mince words, Alan. This is very bad. There's too much evidence to make it go away, and the potential issues at the school have attracted far too much attention. But I'll do what I can, I promise."

"Thank you," he said in a broken voice, feeling his entire world had fallen apart. "I just don't _understand_ it," he said again.

"Neither do I," she replied, shaking her head again.

"I'm going to have to talk to Danny, apologize, try to help," he added, feeling more depressed than he'd ever been in his life.

Carol put her hand on his where it was lying on the table. "That can wait. From what my sister said, those bizarre reptilian capes took him and his daughter somewhere, and she's heard that they're safe. Leave it for now, we need to concentrate on Emma first. The Heberts will need to be talked to at some point, but not right this moment."

He opened his mouth to protest, then sighed and closed it again. She was probably right. But the guilt he felt over his oldest friend's daughter having had _that_ done to her by his own was eating at him badly.

There was a tap on the door, then it opened to admit the PRT lieutenant who'd been handling him while the more senior staff were apparently in a series of meetings about the whole situation, which even he realized was larger than his own problems. "They're ready for you to talk to your daughter, Mr Barnes," the man said politely. "If you'll please follow me?"

Alan looked at Carol, who nodded, then stood. Doing likewise, he scooped up the paperwork and stuffed it back into the folder then handed it to the PRT man, who accepted it, before waving them out the door. Still feeling depressed and slightly detached from reality, he followed the man as he lead them both to meet his daughter who had apparently become someone he barely recognized, without him even noticing until it was far too late... 

* * *

****  
Once Thomas Calvert, over his protestations of innocence which not a single person present believed for a second, had been very securely manacled by Saurial using whatever method she had for producing unbreakable material from nowhere, Emily relaxed slightly. She watched as he was led off by a squad of the most trusted PRT troopers she had available, worrying about the comment that the lizard-girl had made about the fucking man having a number of moles in the organization. Bearing in mind his clearances, which she'd instantly revoked on the spot, it didn't surprise her that this would be the case. She issued orders that the entire staff was to be vetted to the highest level immediately and that anyone even _slightly_ acting oddly was to be immediately restrained and questioned.

"There are a number of booby-traps in your computer systems too," Metis commented as the door closed behind the traitorous ex-PRT employee, a burly trooper on either arm pretty much carrying him out. "We can arrange to dig those out for you. Some of our people are _really_ good with computers."

"Exceptionally so," Raptaur added with a small smile.

Emily stared at them all, then looked around the table. Everyone there was looking bemused, shocked, and worried. This made perfect sense, the entire situation was insane. And every question answered raised several more, made things even less sensible, and were rapidly driving her to want to dig out a bottle of the good whiskey and drink most of it, dialysis or no dialysis.

"I'm disinclined to allow you access to our computer systems," she said, feeling that the word was inadequate. ' _Hell no_ ,' was closer to what she wanted to say, but right now she couldn't quite bring herself to do so for some reason. She was still wondering if calling for a total M/S lockdown of the entire facility would actually be the more sensible thing to do, but at the same time, she was fairly sure it wouldn't really help.

Things had just gone… weird.

Even for Brockton Bay. And _that_ was saying a hell of a lot, considering how this fucking city tended to work on a _good_ day…

Retaking her seat, she winced a little as her back twinged, then fixed the three reptiles with a hard look. "I suppose thanks are in order as far as Calvert goes," she eventually said somewhat reluctantly. "I never liked that man, but I didn't expect… whatever that was."

"We're going to have to root out the rest of his people, here and in his base," Armsmaster put in, sounding thoughtful. "And we don't know where that actually is. Coil was known to employ a number of mercenaries armed with Tinker-tech weapons, and considering the access Calvert has had to our systems for literally years, he has undoubtedly put in countermeasures to many of our standard procedures." The Tinker looked at the lizards, adding, "Based on your description of his powers, it suggests he could well have simulated any number of methods he might be unmasked and come up with ways to defeat them all."

"Oh, he did that, definitely," Saurial nodded, smiling. "Unfortunately for him, we tend to break Thinker powers pretty badly for reasons we don't need to go into right now. So he couldn't see us coming and had no way to prepare for it."

"His base is in the supposedly uncompleted Endbringer shelter under the commercial district," Metis added.

"Oh, hell, that would be almost impregnable," Triumph said, making everyone look at him. "I know about those shelters, if the thing was even half-finished it will be a fortress."

"He finished it almost entirely," Saurial replied. "But that doesn't matter. We can get in easily, as my sister just demonstrated. They'll keep for now though. I doubt they even know he's gone and they won't find out for a while, so I'd suggest leaving it until later."

"You will also probably find that you've had some help from an interested party," Metis commented, looking somewhat smug. They switched their attention to the black lizard. "Let's just say that if you wait for a while, you'll find things on that front are somewhat easier than you might expect."

Emily looked at them all, then sighed heavily. "Oh, for god's sake, this is all completely ridiculous," she grumbled. " _Every single thing you say_ makes it _worse_ , too!"

Saurial merely smiled a little, her head cocked to the side as she watched them. Emily was beginning to really find that smile irritating.

"We're going to need to talk to the Heberts sooner rather than later," she said after a moment or two. "Coil or no Coil, that incident seems to be the root cause of all this insanity and we need to clear it up."

"We'll get to that in the end, Director," Saurial assured her. "The Heberts need to be left alone right now. They're safe at home and not going anywhere, you'll get a chance to discuss things with them, but not right now. We have other things to talk about first."

"Such as?" she asked suspiciously. "You mentioned Cauldron. That's an internet conspiracy theory, not a real thing."

Saurial tipped her head the other way and examined her closely.

Emily's heart sank.

"Isn't it?" she added weakly, feeling that things were only going to get worse.

Again.

The lizard's eyes moved to Battery, who was staring fixedly at her with a certain amount of strain present around her mouth under her visor.

"It's rather more real than that, Director," the reptilian cape said calmly, still looking at Battery, who didn't seem to be able to look away. "And I'm afraid that you're not going to like what we're going to tell you."

"Like I've _liked_ anything _else_ that's happened today," Emily sighed. She was, yet again, getting a sensation like she was waiting for the hammer to drop. From what she could see on the faces of the others present, everyone felt the same. Assault was looking between his wife and the reptiles with an unusually intense expression, and seemed confused and worried in equal amounts.

Saurial looked away from Battery after a few more seconds, the woman slumping slightly as if she'd suddenly relaxed. Or possibly given up, based on her body language. Returning her gaze to Emily the lizard-girl regarded her for a second, then produced a small box and flicked it across the table to her.

Emily slapped her hand down on it as it slid past, everyone watching with great interest. "What is this?" she asked, lifting her hand to study the container, which was about half the size of a matchbox.

"A prerequisite for us telling you more," Saurial replied.

Giving her a hard look, Emily carefully opened the box at arm's length, then peered inside rather cautiously. There was a small off-white oval about the size of a fingernail sitting inside on a protective foam sheet. "And _this_ is?" she asked even more suspiciously as she examined it, then raised her eyes to Saurial's.

" _That_ is a single-use universal healer," the lizard said, not looking away. Emily felt a surge of anger and opened her mouth. "No. Listen to me, and _hear_ me, Emily Piggot," Saurial snapped. "You are physically disabled and for a number of somewhat ill-conceived reasons have refused to be healed, which could easily have been arranged at any point in the last several years via Panacea. I know why, I even understand it from your point of view, but events have moved past that now." Her voice was suddenly hard and commanding. Emily couldn't look away from that alien gaze.

"You are moments away from a massive heart attack and have been for months. I can literally smell it on you, leaving aside knowing that it happened to _my_ Director Piggot only a few weeks from now in our timeline. If Panacea hadn't been only minutes away and called in by a doctor who did his duty, _that_ Emily would have died. You are going to learn some things that will cause considerable stress if I explain more to you, and I'm not going to risk it if you don't get fixed." Saurial stared at her as she flushed. "If you want to find out more, you _are_ going to get healed first. Either using that, or by Panacea, your choice. But it's non-negotiable."

There was an uncomfortable silence in the conference room for some seconds. Everyone was looking between the pair of them, Saurial's relatives simply watching quietly. Emily gazed at the lizard, who seemed content to just sit there and look back. After ten seconds or so, she looked down at the tiny thing in the box. "I have no idea whether you're telling me the truth about this fucking thing," she growled.

"I am," Saurial shrugged. "You can believe me or not. I can provide you with an entire PRT report from my world showing how they tested our healers and approved them. They're standard issue for all law enforcement organizations these days, and other emergency services, and in the longer term they'll end up in every home on the planet if we have anything to do with it. Those things have saved more lives than you'd believe. They're entirely safe, and if it's any help, aren't actually a Parahuman power. They're Family biotech. Another cousin invented them, and trust me when I say she is a _very_ talented Biosculptor. Her designs always work."

She pointed at the thing with one taloned finger. "Use that, call for Panacea, or both. But until you do, I'm not going to give you more information and risk you stroking out on me or something. Sure, if you do, Metis will heal you up, but there's no reason other than stubborn bloody-mindedness for you to still be in this state and you damn well know it. Get over your hangups and _fix_ yourself, you idiot."

Emily glared at her, furious, but in her heart knowing the fucking reptile had a point. As much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, her own prejudices against Parahumans were the reason she was as sick as she was. Panacea could indeed have healed her and undoubtedly _would_ have done so if she'd requested it, but owing New Wave a favor was even more galling than allowing a Parahuman to use their powers on her in the first place.

"Director..." Miss Militia began. Emily held up a hand without looking at her, causing the woman to stop. Not looking away from Saurial, who was looking back intently, she thought hard.

"I don't like being spoken to like that," she said after a few seconds.

Saurial shrugged. "I'm aware of that, and I'm sorry, but I am also serious. You are in many ways an admirable person, but your hangups about capes are putting your life, and those under your command, at risk. For no good reason, really. I have a lot of respect for the Emily Piggot I know and as far as I can see you deserve much the same, but your attitude isn't doing you any favors. Ending up dead because you were too stubborn to accept help is a very silly way to go."

She smiled a little. "Just accept reality, use the healer, and we can move on. You're going to need to be in peak condition to deal with things that are going to happen soon."

"Oh, that just _fills_ me with confidence," Emily groused, shaking her head. She looked around at the others. Most of those present were watching her with varying levels of concern, Miss Militia was looking rather more worried than that and inspecting the tiny bio-widget with great suspicion, and Armsmaster was looking intrigued. Of course.

"Fuck it." She made a decision that she hoped wasn't going to bite her in the ass and picked up the box. "How do I use it?"

This was probably a bad idea, but she _had_ to know more, and the damn lizard seemed serious when she said she wasn't going to reveal anything else unless she accepted this thing. And, she thought, trying to take comfort from it, if they really _were_ alien lizards from another world, in a real sense they weren't Parahumans at all…

Thus rationalized, and partly driven by a deep weariness about feeling so shit all the time, she followed the brief instructions that the reptilian girl gave her, placing the small thing on the back of her hand and pressing hard. Moments after it made a weird little squeaking sound, her hand went numb, then the low-level chronic pain she'd suffered ever since Ellisburg… went away.

She actually gasped in shock as for the first time in years nothing hurt. Armsmaster was pointing one of his instruments at her and appeared fascinated. Everyone else was staring. A few seconds later the numbness faded and sensation came back everywhere.

Emily assessed what her body was telling her.

Nothing at all hurt. In fact, she couldn't remember feeling this good since she was about twenty or so. Gently prodding her side, then poking harder, she noted that there was no pain, none of the internal distress she'd lived with constantly for longer than she liked to think about.

When she inspected her right hand, she saw that a paper cut she'd had on her ring finger from that morning had disappeared. A scar from a broken bottle on the palm of her hand was also missing.

"Christ," she mumbled, shocked at how well the bizarre thing had worked. "That's… unbelievable."

"My sister does very good work," Metis smiled.

"Impressive," Armsmaster commented, looking at the screen of his scanner. "You read as being in perfect health, Director. No signs of the injuries you formerly had are present, and both your kidneys appear to have regenerated in under thirty seconds. That is extraordinary, I doubt that even Panacea could do so much so rapidly." His voice sounded shocked.

"As Metis said, Ianthe is very good at what she does. Those things have been optimized to an amazing level," Raptaur said, appearing pleased. "You will find that you rapidly lose weight over the next couple of weeks until you reach an optimal point. After that your metabolism will revert to normal."

Emily was still tentatively poking herself in places that used to hurt but no longer did, in a kind of stunned wonder. Perhaps her decision wasn't so rash after all…

The lack of pain certainly made her mood improve. Although she still had a feeling of incipient doom, looking at the reptiles at the end of the table.

Eventually she got to grips with the fact that she appeared to be as healthy as she'd ever been and turned to Saurial. "Fine. Despite my reservations, I did what you demanded. Now, _you_ hold up _your_ end of the deal."

"Sure," Saurial smiled. She looked slowly around the table, ending up with her eyes on Emily again. "In nineteen eighty one, Earth was invaded by a hostile alien species, whose breeding cycle will result in the destruction of the planet and all alternate versions of it unless they can be stopped..." she began.

Everyone froze and stared at her in disbelief.

Emily Piggot suddenly realized that her feeling of incipient doom was _vastly_ underestimating the situation, if this mad reptile was telling anything even close to the truth.

As she listened, she got the very unwelcome sensation that she was. 

* * *

Thomas lay on the bed in his cell and stared blankly at the ceiling.

What the _fuck_ had happened?

And _how_ was he going to get out of it? 

* * *

Sophia paced back and forth in the small room she was confined to, swearing almost constantly and thinking desperately how to fix this, while unconsciously tugging on the bracelets that fucking lizard had put on her wrists.

When she got out of here, a lot of people were going to be sorry. 

* * *

Madison looked at her parents, then the lawyer they'd arrived with, all three adults appearing shocked by what the PRT woman had told them. She made her decision, tears in her eyes.

Then she started talking in low tones. Her parents looked more and more horrified and disappointed as time went on. 

* * *

****  
Carol turned to Alan as his daughter was led out of the interview room again, her red hair clashing horribly with the orange jumpsuit she was wearing. The man seemed stunned and appalled, which didn't surprise her at all.

When they were alone once more, she sighed. "The small good part about all that is that I think we can make a case for actions taken while her mind was disturbed. It's clearly accurate, and may work."

He nodded absently, still looking at the closed door.

She checked her notes one last time then shut the notebook and stood up. "Come on, Alan. We need to talk to your wife and discuss our next move."

Like an automaton, he stood too, then followed her out of the room.

As they headed down to the parking facility, Carol found herself grateful that her own daughters were, despite Vicky's best efforts, far less trouble than her poor colleague's youngest was. Listening to the rationalizations for her actions that Emma Barnes had produced, apparently fully believing them, made her feel ill. 

* * *

****  
In a completely different subset of reality, a phone rang.

When it was answered, the person who picked it up nodded thoughtfully to herself, asked a few pertinent questions, then disconnected, before calling some of her friends and Family.

They had work to do.


	12. Speedrun

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 **Topic: WTF is going on at Winslow High School?  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Bagrat ** (Original Poster) (The Guy in the Know) (Veteran Member)  
Posted On Jan 4th 2011:

Well, this is all very strange...

And that's saying something in Brockton Bay, where strange things happen every day and twice on weekends...

I'm telling you guys, _this_ is why I'm giving serious consideration to moving away from this damn place. To almost _anywhere_ else.

But for now, I'm here. So I will do what I always do and bring you news and updates on the latest bizarre happenings in our fair city (and I can't even _type_ that with a straight face!).

So. A little background for those of you who have not had the dubious pleasure of experiencing the institute of learning and knowledge that is WInslow High School (again, a cynical laugh escapes...) This is not a good school. It is not even, according to those who have escaped it, even a _bad_ school. In all honesty, it barely qualifies as a school at all, words along the lines of "training ground for gang members" being considered by many as far more accurate.

I wish I was joking.

But that's a topic for a different thread, or **ten** , **and indeed these exist in other places on PHO**.

This particular thread is specifically about the peculiar events that began being reported at just after half past ten this morning. Initial information I've seen is that one or more previously unknown Parahumans, variously described as "Reptilian," "Lizards," or "Fucking terrifying scaly things," arrived out of nowhere and pretty much took over the damn place. At least one is currently standing outside the school, seemingly guarding it, while one or possibly two more are inside. Reports are currently sketchy about exactly why they are there, what they want, or what they've done, but the outcome at the moment is that half the local PRT and Protectorate are on scene, as is most of the Brockton Bay Police Department _and_ Fire Department.

Additionally at least one ambulance is attending, and if my source is to be believed, a BBFD Hazmat team is also at the school. I've also heard that some of New Wave were seen heading in that direction moments ago, although this is currently unconfirmed.

My information is that several phone calls were placed to the police and medical services shortly after these allegedly reptilian capes turned up, apparently on the orders of one of them. Who called the PRT is unknown but considering the circumstances I wouldn't be surprised to hear the answer was ' _everyone_ '... ;)

There have been a number of rumors suggesting Shadow Stalker was also seen in the school but so far nothing to say any other Wards are present.

The first **video** I've seen from the area makes it look like a disaster training exercise. I haven't seen that many flashing lights and people with weapons since the time Lung took on the entire ENE Protectorate and kicked their asses.

As usual, I'll update this post with new information as it comes in. Send photos and video if you have it. But stay safe.

Update 1, 11:04 ET: A **good shot** of the cape at the door of the school. Fuck _me_ , it really _is_ a lizard! A hellishly worrying looking one too, it's got to be at least seven feet tall and built like a tank! :O Anyone ever heard of this one before, or seen anything like it?

Update 2, 11:21 ET: We now know that there definitely are three of them, all apparently reptilian in looks. Still waiting on any identification. Lady Photon, Manpower, and Laserdream are all confirmed as being present, but are apparently just standing around watching right now. The school is in lockdown and there are no current reports of casualties. Armsmaster and the Hazmat team are inside, as are Assault and a number of PRT troopers and BBPD officers.

Update 3, 11:36 ET: We have names for the lizards. The little one is called Saurial, the black one is Metis, and the fucking huge one is Raptaur. They're all supposedly related, and all female. Video of Raptaur and Saurial talking to Armsmaster is **here**.

Update 4, 11:47 ET: **Two more** videos of the lizards. The second one has some audio of them talking to each other. Is that even a language? I've never heard anything like it outside my nightmares...

 **(Showing page 101 of 305)**

 **►LizardGirl**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

But they're still LIZARDS! So that makes them cool :D And from what my dad says Winslow really _is_ that bad, so I can easily believe something horrible happened there and they're helping out. Just because you think they're scary-looking (they really aren't) doesn't mean they're villains.

 **►Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Unfortunately I can't say any more at this time, even unofficially. Sorry. But as I said earlier, there is currently reason to believe that a crime was committed and the response from all authorities involved is proportionate to the possible risk. When more facts have been established and the situation stabilized a full press release will be announced through the normal channels.

Keep calm, guys, this is still early, so don't panic :)

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Wow.

I just found out about this, I was in class and they don't like us using phones.

Lizards?! Weird.

I wonder where they came from?

Any more video or photos yet anywhere other than the ones Bagrat linked?

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Over and over.

Brockton Bay is WEIRD...

I mean, it's a smallish city in a country on the other side of the ocean from me and I still end up reading a local events forum about it EVERY SINGLE DAY. Before I even check my own local news!

It's like the best reality TV ever :D

Just glad I don't live anywhere near the place, I have to say...

And now you have reptilian capes from hell? Jesus.

 **►NightFoxx**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

LizardGirl, we all know you're biased ;)

But I'll agree they're sort of cool in a really terrifying way.

Not foxes, but still cool. I wonder what powers they have? Aside from ' _Freak out people by grinning at them?_ ' which is impressive all on its own. It even works through cameras :)

 **►TheGunSmith1**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

No, that wouldn't work, I can pretty much guarantee it. Look at those scales. No 9mm round on the planet would do anything more than annoy them.

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about :) But I can't explain why...

A .50 cal MIGHT do something, but I sure wouldn't want to try it.

And aside from anything else, why are we even discussing this now? They haven't really done anything except, if you believe the rumors, _stop_ a crime from happening. Look at the way Armsmaster is standing in that last video clip; He's wary, but not ready for a fight, just being cautious. Say what you want about the guy, he may be full of himself sometimes, but he really _is_ that good. If he's not worried, I'm not going to second guess him.

Wait and see what happens before you get too paranoid.

 **►PhysioTheRapist (not a rapist)**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I'm telling you, Sothoth, none of them are people in costumes, no matter how realistic. The smallest one, Saurial, definitely not, I guarantee it. Look at the way her legs move for a start. The biomechanics are _totally_ wrong for a human leg and there's no possible way even a small human could fit inside in the first place. Yeah, she's taller than most people, but she's also pretty slender, so even a kid wouldn't fit.

Raptaur, the huge one... OK, yes, she's fucking enormous and you could get a normal sized person inside something that size. But it still doesn't feel right to me. I know the human body, I work on them all day and have done for fifteen years, and it just wouldn't work properly at all for half a dozen reasons I can think of off the top of my head.

The middle one. Metis, I think? That looks _slightly_ more plausible but I still don't buy it. I mean, you can see on the video **here** that she's breathing, and when she moves her tail a few seconds later, look at the way the muscles move. That's a living creature, not a robot, I'm certain of that.

No, you're going to have to admit they're all real people, I'm afraid. I don't know enough to say whether they're some Biotinker's work, but I really doubt it for a number of reasons. At least one being, if there _is_ some Biotinker out there making lizard people, why have we never heard of them before now? And for that matter, why _lizard people?_

 **►Bagrat** (Original Poster) (The Guy in the Know) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Thanks, Reave. Worth a try, right?

Vista, sorry, at the moment as far as I can tell the videos and photos I've linked are all the ones available. There are half a dozen other threads on this event and I've collated all the results of them in the original post in this one. Anyone who can give more information? I'm looking around all the normal places but it's a fast-moving subject right now.

LizardGirl... OK, yes, they look cool. I can't deny that as much as I'd like to :)

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Honest, I'm telling you guys, Winslow really is a shithole. I _know_.

Those lizards are the good guys. Trust me.

 **►Procto the Unfortunate Tinker** (Not a tinker)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Trust... YOU? :O

Who are you and what did you do with the real XxVoid_CowboyxX? :D

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 99, 100, 101, 102, 103 ... 303, 304, 305**

 **(Showing page 102 of 305)**

 **►Feychick**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

ROFL

On that subject, any more information on who it was that Saurial apparently rescued? The other threads with the video that guy took keep getting shut down.

And was it really who we think it was that got grabbed? If it was, how did Saurial stop her getting away?

 **(Warning: This is perilously close to speculating on the identity of a Parahuman, Feychick. Please don't carry on down this path. I'll let it go this time, but be careful. You know the rules. Everyone else, watch what you say, I'm getting tired of banning people - TinMom)**

 **►Feychick**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Sorry, Glorious Overlady ;)

We're just curious.

 **►Tin Mother** (Moderator) (SuperMod)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I wouldn't expect anything else! I'll admit this entire thing has me curious too. But we need to keep in mind that people's lives are at stake, so keep the speculation within the bounds of common sense, please.

 **►GstringGirl**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I think Metis looks really cool too, LizardGirl :)

But I likes foxes as well. We don't want to upset NightFoxx, remember the last time that happened?

;)

 **►The_Swede_With_A_Hammer**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

No, we DO NOT want that to happen again.

Because we DO remember.

 **►NightFoxx**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Now you're just being mean :)

And if gives me a story idea! I need to write it down...

 **►LizardGirl**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Make sure it has a lizard in it! :D

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Oh, no, not again...

 **►Feychick**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

LOL

 **►The_Swede_With_A_Hammer**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Oh god.

What have I _done..._

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 100, 101, 102, 103, 104 ... 303, 304, 305**

 **(Showing page 103 of 305)**

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Doomed us all :D :D

 **►Winged One** (Verified Super Troll)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I'm sitting here staring at this and wondering what the FUCK just happened...

You guys have _no idea_ what any of this might mean, in all honestly. And I'm not sure I can explain it, even if I was allowed to.

Trust me when I say it's big, though. Very, _very_ big.

And no, this isn't me trolling you, I really am confused as fuck right now... But I'm also thinking for the first time in years that something good might happen.

NightFoxx, if you want some more story ideas, PM me. I have lots but I'm no good at writing fics. Love reading them, though :D My family all like your stuff too!

 **►Miss Mercury** (Protectorate Employee)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

If anyone present at Winslow has more media files than they have currently published here or anywhere else, we're interested in seeing them.

 **►Sothoth**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Thanks, I guess, Physio. It was just an idea I had. I'm just trying to work out where these people came from...

(And your name is still in bad taste. Funny, though :) )

 **►Laser Augment**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I think EVERYONE is trying to work THAT out!

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

:D

Bet you're right about _that_.

This is really peculiar even around this place.

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I just shot **this** video. You can hear all three of them talking to each other, but I have _NO_ idea _WHAT_ language that is Anybody have any idea? It sounds weirder than anything else I've ever heard in my entire life, but I have to say it fits what they look like!

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Holy crap. What _is_ that?

 **►LizardGirl**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Lizard Talk!

:D

 **►Sothoth**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

sigh

Very helpful.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 101, 102, 103, 104, 105 ... 303, 304, 305**

 **(Showing page 104 of 305)**

 **►LizardGirl**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I try to do what I can!

 **►The_Swede_With_A_Hammer**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

ROFL

 **►Brocktonite03** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Jesus! Something over in the docks just blew up! I'm standing right next to the police line at Winslow and EVERYONE hit the deck! It was fucking loud and now there's a huge mushroom cloud in the weirdest color you've ever seen rising above the buildings about maybe a mile away or so? Something like that. The cops and the PRT are going nuts, but those lizards just sort of casually looked over like they'd been expecting it or something.

Think they had anything to do with it?

And NOW I can hear gunshots coming from that way too.

What in the name of Christ is going on THIS time?

 **►Bagrat** (Original Poster) (The Guy in the Know) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Thanks for the video, MZenny.

EDIT: Be careful, Brocktonite03! I'm hearing on the police scanner that things are suddenly getting very crazy close to you guys. I'd recommend getting out of there.

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 102, 103, 104, 105, 106 ... 303, 304, 305**

•

* * *

Sarah shook her head and leaned back, closing the lid of her laptop. Neil, who had been reading from behind her with both hands on her shoulders, giving her a gentle massage, made a small sound of puzzlement.

"Strange day," he said.

"That it is," she replied quietly, "and I think it's only going to get stranger. I have no idea who those three are, but their power-set is appallingly effective."

"I wonder if there are more of them?" he mused.

She shrugged. "I don't know. No one's ever heard of _these_ ones, so I suppose it's possible there are others that have also managed to keep out of public view. Why they'd pop up now, there, and like that I don't know."

"Something to do with that girl Saurial rescued?"

"It makes as much sense as anything," she admitted. "Although that's not saying all that much. The best information I can find is that it was a girl called Taylor Hebert, who is the daughter of Danny Hebert, a man who's fairly well known in the city."

"Something important at the DWU, right?" he asked thoughtfully. "I've heard of him."

She nodded. "Yes. He's a friend of Alan's, Carol's coworker. Who has a daughter with red hair. And looked an awful lot like one of the girls Metis brought out of the school this afternoon, along with the other two. Carol is being coy about either confirming or denying it was the Barnes girl, which tells me it almost certainly was, since she's in lawyer mode. I can tell. He's probably asked for her help for whatever the girl got mixed up in."

"I saw some video on YouTube that showed Shadow Stalker managing to give her identity away in public," he commented with a small frown. "It got taken down about five minutes later, but Crystal says it keeps popping up again both there and on PHO. Someone really seems to want it seen."

"I heard about that although I haven't seen it," she sighed. "Stupid girl. She was one of the other two Metis had in chains. What on earth those were made of to keep Shadow Stalker restrained I have no idea but it has to be fairly exotic. Armsmaster looked absolutely furious when he was following her to the transport vehicle. And Saurial didn't seem very pleased either later on."

"Any idea what happened? Clearly something nasty."

"There are at least a dozen different stories that I've seen, but they mostly seem to imply or flat out state some form of assault on the Hebert girl. No one has seen her since Saurial took her somewhere."

He let go of her shoulders and sat in the specially sized chair he had next to the living room table. "I hope she's all right."

"I expect so," Sarah responded. "Those lizards seemed very concerned. If all this started due to some previous connection between them and the Heberts, or possibly the DWU, it might explain a lot. But what that connection is, I simply don't know."

"Jesus. Piggot is going to be hopping mad. Never mind everything else that happened."

"Quite. Although we came out of it rather well, and to be honest I think everyone else did as well." Sarah looked at her laptop for a moment, debating resuming reading, but decided against it. Too much of that sort of thing left one feeling even less knowledgeable than one started with in her experience. Better to wait and see how things turned out. "Vicky's save of that PRT VTOL was wonderful, not only because she saved four lives but in the way it's helped our reputation. The PRT were very grateful, of course, but the public will be happy too. And with Crystal and her catching Rune so smoothly, plus Amy of all people getting Victor off the streets..." She shook her head in wonder.

"We couldn't have asked for a better outcome to be honest. The girls did a spectacular job."

"I wonder if Carol will see it like that?" he grinned. She sighed faintly, knowing what her sister was like, but was somewhat amused too.

"I hope so. If she becomes too difficult, I told Vicky and Amy to let me know and I'd set her straight. Hopefully warning her earlier will have let her come to terms with it before seeing them. We'd probably better go over later and make sure nothing too loud happens, even so."

"I think we all need to sit down and discuss what we do next," he suggested. "Seize the momentum of today, I mean. The city administration and the PRT will probably both be unusually receptive to us, you're right about the possible PR value. Best to make use of it as soon as we can."

She thought, nodding absently. "I suppose you're right. With the amount of confusion around Winslow, which is going to take weeks to clear up at a minimum, things are definitely going to be different around here for a while. The Federal authorities being involved will make life complicated, and the CDC at least were definitely on site. I heard someone say the FBI were coming too. It's quite likely that we'll be asked to talk to them, so we should make sure we present a unified front."

"True," he remarked, frowning. "Very nasty, all of this. And a Ward of all people being involved. Carol is going to be furious about that, you know what she's like."

"I expect no more furious than the Director, who will be at the point of chewing nails," Sarah smiled sadly. "She's… difficult… where it comes to Parahumans. Shadow Stalker will have only reinforced that, which isn't good for anyone. It's a pity, Emily Piggot is a good woman in many ways, but some of her prejudices are awkward at best."

Her husband nodded.

"Ah, well. I can't do anything about that," she added, getting up. "Let's have something to eat then go over to make sure my sister isn't giving her daughters a hard time."

"Sounds like a good plan," he smiled, also standing and following her into the kitchen. After a second he chuckled, making her look at him. "I still can't believe that _Amy_ looted _Victor_ like that. It was hilarious. She looked so pleased with herself! And Vicky was visibly proud, which is cute."

Sarah giggled. "I know what you mean. I haven't seen the poor girl so cheerful in months. Perhaps this will be good for both of them. We need to make sure Carol doesn't do anything silly and ruin it. They both did excellent work today."

"Yeah, that they did." Both looked up at the ceiling as they heard feet on the floor above them. "Sounds like Crystal's back. I'll get her and Eric to set the table."

Shortly, all four Pelhams were eating and talking happily, the youngest of the family decrying the unfairness of not having been able to join in because it was all over before he could get out of school.

* * *

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 **Topic: Gang War In BB?!  
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay  
Bladeworksfan ** (Original Poster) (Kyushu Survivor)  
Posted On Jan 4th 2011:

About ten minutes ago as I type this there was a MASSIVE explosion in the general area of the Docks here in Brockton Bay, which everyone in the city probably heard. It made the biggest cloud of smoke you've ever seen, all different colors, which caused a mushroom cloud that made it look like someone nuked the fucking place!

Photos **here** , **here** , **here** , and **here**. That last one is actually beautiful in a horrifying way...

Word on the street is that it was some Tinker thing that Leet made which exploded. There's an enormous crater where a street used to be and at least one building is collapsed across the road. Both that building and the one next to it are used by the ABB, and they were _not_ happy about it :)

' _Not happy_ ' as in about fifty or sixty of them with enough guns to take over Nebraska just charged off after two guys that are probably Leet and his crazy friend Über, shooting holes in everything like something out of a Vietnam war movie! It's insane, I can hear guns going off all over the damn docks, and bullets are coming back over me every now and then :O I'm hiding behind the thickest brick wall I can find but it's too dangerous to try to get out of here, so I'll just have to wait it out.

Everyone is hunkered down and praying that Lung doesn't turn up!

Edit: _Lung just turned up..._

Yeah, shit just got real. Uber and Leet got away, or got killed, I don't know which. But the ABB ran into Rune and Crusader and started shooting at _them_ instead, which of course made them shoot back. Now Oni Lee is doing his thing, except that he seems to have found _**A FUCKING ROCKET LAUNCHER**_ from somewhere! He was bad enough with **GRENADES** and now he's got **ROCKETS?** **GAH!**

As if that wasn't enough, Lung came after him and now _EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE!_

I'm getting out of here. I'd rather get a bullet in the head than burn to death.

Edit 2: Oh, fuck me, Storm Tiger and Hookwolf just arrived _TOO!_ This is insane. It's turned into a complete gang war, the ABB and the E88 are kicking the shit out of each other and the entire area. Most of the PRT and Protectorate are still dealing with whatever the hell is going on at Winslow, and almost all the cops in the city are there too so who's going to stop this?

Can it even BE stopped?

This city has been ready to explode for months and I'm terrified I've just seen the start of that exact thing happen.

Thanks a fucking bunch, Leet. You idiot.

 **(Showing page 24 of 34)**

 **►Tin Mother** (Moderator) (SuperMod)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I assure you, based on the video Bagrat just posted, that's NOT Über. I have a professional interest in Parahumans and considerable experience in the field, and whoever that is, he's too short by a good six inches. Which strongly implies that the other man isn't Leet, as the pair of them are known to always work together.

And while Leet has a well-deserved reputation for his inventions having reliability issues, I personally doubt he would take something as volatile as whatever it was that detonated into the field. In the past he's shown a certain degree of care with the ' _shows_ ' those two put on and the evidence is that they cause less damage than might be expected, suggesting that they do have a level of restraint that many villains do not.

I think we need to wait for an investigation into the cause of the blast before we jump to conclusions that it was either Leet's work or that it was a deliberate attack on the ABB. Aside from anything else, whatever those two are, they're not suicidal, and risking Lung of all people going after you for any reason seems a little out of character!

 **►BBMayor** (Verified Public Official)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Thank you, Tin Mother. Your expertise is reassuring. I would ask that the people of our city try to calm down and stay well aware from the ongoing trouble in the Docks, and not assign blame until we are fully informed as to what happened and why.

I can assure everyone that there will be a complete investigation into this event, as with the unpleasantness at Winslow, and anyone found to be complicit will be suitably dealt with. I think I speak for everyone in Brockton Bay when I say that we're not pleased about any of this. I and the rest of the city council will be pressing the PRT both locally and nationally to do what is needed to prevent such things happening again, and if we don't get acceptable answers, we are prepared to arrange for alternative measures.

Please be careful and stay out of danger until all this settles down, my friends.

 **►Zjunrei**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Holy shit...

Look at **THIS!** Glory Girl just saved that PRT aircraft in about the most spectacular way I've ever seen! Looks like Our Lady of Collateral Damage _can_ do something without breaking everything around her :)

Seriously, that was amazing. Anyone know how many people are in one of those things? Must be at least two.

 **►OgmaTheGood**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Four aircrew, normally, pilot, co-pilot, camera-operator/aux gunner, and weapons officer. Depending on mission profile, there might also be a medic or flight engineer, but I'd assume that flight was a surveillance one, so probably the standard four crew.

I'm impressed, that was a very neat save. Looks like the aircraft might even be repairable, whatever hit it took out one engine but there doesn't look to be much airframe damage otherwise. Hopefully she put it down somewhere flat...

 **►NegiBolt**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Glory Girl got it down in one piece, I can see it in the park about a block from me if I lean out the window. Still smoking a little, but it looks more or less intact. There are four guys in PRT flight uniforms jogging this way in a hurry, one of them limping a little, with GG flying overhead. I think they're heading for Winslow which is about a quarter of a mile away.

Guess that makes sense, half the PRT is there and it's safer than trying to make it back through the craziness still going on between here and the PRT building! :( I can see the flames from here!

 **►BattleShipper** (Wiki Warrior)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Wow. That was pretty good.

Go, Glory Girl! Show them you can do good!

 **►Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Very nicely done, I have to say. You don't want to know how much those damn things cost :) Hopefully we can recover it as soon as everything calms down.

And I'm extremely relieved to hear the crew made it. I have a friend on that thanks to Glory Girl and New Wave.

 **►BadSamurai**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I'm not saying I don't believe you, Tin Mother, and not just because you can make me regret it :) All I'm saying is that how can you really tell those guys aren't Über and Leet from one frame of video?

Seems a reach.

 **►Tin Mother** (Moderator) (SuperMod)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I have a very good computer program for video analysis :)

It's a complex subject to explain in a forum like this, but very briefly it's possible to correlate known dimensions of background and foreground objects, along with the shadows cast by the people in the photo, and a number of other parameters, to arrive at a fairly good depth map for the image. Once you have that data, working out the dimensions of other things, such as the subject of the photo, becomes quite straight forward.

Given that, I can tell you with at least 90% certainty that the larger man is still considerably shorter than Über, who is quite tall at about six foot two inches. While the shorter one is roughly the same physical size and build as Leet, he's not an exact match, and as I said, the pair of them are known to only work together.

And thanks, BBMayor, it was my pleasure. I do hope that your city can get over what's happening! This whole day has been more exciting than I would think anyone expected :)

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Good lord!

Yes, that was impressive.

And yet _another_ example of why I am glad I'm somewhere with a lot less capes... ;)

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 ... 32, 33, 34**

 **(Showing page 25 of 34)**

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Nice catch, GG!

Glad you didn't throw it at Lung...

Although probably not as glad as the guys _in_ the thing!

:D

 **►Vista** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

You know she's going to get you for that, right?

Right?

:D

 **►The_Swede_With_A_Hammer**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

He'll probably make it ;)

He always has so far.

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Ummm...

What the _fuck_ is happening _now?_

 **Why are all those ABB guys just... falling over?**

 **►Bagrat** (The Guy in the Know) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

More to the point, what the hell are you doing close enough to all that to _take a video of it?_ Get to cover, you crazy person!

Although I have to admit I have no idea what's going on there. I can't think of a cape that can do that. Miss Militia with a sniper rifle, maybe?

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Don't worry, I'm a long way from there, I just have a _really_ good lens on this camera. Expensive damn thing too. I'm safe enough, especially since things seem to be rapidly going downhill for the people fighting. Almost all the ABB normals are down now, just lying there on the street. I think something invisible was chasing them based on the way they were reacting. Another video **here**. See how they were panicking and shooting at something _that isn't there?_

 **►Bladeworksfan** (Original Poster) (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Lung just knocked another building down chasing Hookwolf...

Edit: And now he's coming back my way. Oh, crap.

Edit again: ... I have no idea what just happened...

 **►Laotsunn** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Get the hell out of there, Blade!

 **►Winged One** (Verified Super Troll)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Oh.

Isn't _that_ interesting...?

I'm going to have to think about this.

 **►LizardGirl**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

What happened?

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 ... 32, 33, 34**

 **(Showing page 26 of 34)**

 **►Miss Mercury** (Protectorate Employee)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

We're not sure, but we're staring at it too.

There are a lot of very confused analysts here at the moment...

 **►Kid Win** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

But _what happened?!_

 **►Dingbat779** (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I _saw_ it, and I _still_ don't know.

Look at **this**.

Isn't that Raptaur, that new cape from Winslow? The angle was bad, but from what I can see against the flames behind Lung, it pretty much has to be. What did she do to him?

 **►NightFoxx**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Did... Did Raptaur just _pokeball Lung?_ :O :D

I mean... _What?_

That _can't_ be real, right?

 **►Bladeworksfan** (Original Poster) (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I saw it happen. It's real. I don't _believe_ it, but it's _real_.

I think I've just about had enough of today, guys. Can someone make it stop? Please?

 **►LizardGirl**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I think _they_ can...

I knew there was a reason I like lizards :)

 **►PhysioTheRapist (not a rapist)**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Because you're just that weird? ;)

 **►LizardGirl**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

;)

 **►Winged One** (Verified Super Troll)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

It was real, and it's _fascinating_.

There are implications on implications.

I...

Hmm.

It's possible I may have to fix some things in the near future...

We'll see how it turns out. But for the first time in a very long time, I'm totally confused. Hopeful, worried, but confused.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Lung, I unchoose you!

:D

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 ... 32, 33, 34**

 **(Showing page 27 of 34)**

 **►NightFoxx**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

LOL

That was cool as hell. How did she _do_ that?

 **►Feychick**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Saurial just punched out Hookwolf!

One hit. I can't believe it, but he's down.

... And now HE'S in a little grey ball too.

Fuck. I don't think we should upset these lizards. One punch? Hookwolf?

Who ARE these people?

 **►Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

A lot of people would like to know that.

 **►LizardGirl**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

 _Told_ you they were cool! :)

 **►NightFoxx**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

You did. They are.

But they're also TERRIFYING...

:D

 **►BattleShipper** (Wiki Warrior)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Terrifyingly cool, perhaps? Will that keep both of you happy? :)

Any more news on what's going on? With Lung and Hookwolf both down, and from what the last video Bladeworksfan posted showing about a hundred ABB just lying around the place too, who's left?

 **►Zjunrei**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

It's getting a lot quieter here. Most of the shooting has stopped, and the PRT look relieved and puzzled at the same time. Got pretty scary for a while, there were bullets and rockets flying all over the fucking place. I don't think anyone is seriously hurt, although at least two cops only barely made it when a rocket hit there car. Luckily Panacea is here right now and seems to be fixing them up.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention in the excitement, but when Glory Girl and Panacea turned up, I think they had an unconscious Victor with them! Guess GG stopped for a takeout Nazi... :D

 **►Bagrat** (The Guy in the Know) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

VIctor's down _too?_ Wow. Victor, Lung, and Hookwolf in one day.

Today is _not_ a good day for the gangs.

I approve.

 **►Reave** (Verified PRT Agent)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

You can add to that Crusader and Oni Lee. Velocity just reported he'd captured the latter, and one of our teams found Crusader bleeding out on a roof back where all this started. Apparently he didn't duck quite fast enough:) He'll make it, but he won't enjoy the process.

An official announcement will follow fairly soon, we're still correlating reports. But it looks like things may be winding down quite rapidly, at least partially due to these mysterious new capes.

 **►MZenny**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

You can add Rune to that as well! Glory Girl and Laserdream just grabbed her right out a flying dumpster in one of the neatest cooperative operations I've seen. LD distracted her, GG came up behind and snagged her before she knew what hit her!

Hilarious to see. She wasn't happy :) :)

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 ... 32, 33, 34**

 **(Showing page 28 of 34)**

 **►Clockblocker** (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Damn it! We're missing all the fun!

:(

 **►Brocktonite03** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I just heard they got Storm Tiger as well :D Not sure who it was, but he's down.

This is unbelievable. Both ABB capes and at least half the gang, then Crusader, Rune, Victor, Storm Tiger, and Hookwolf from the E88 at the same time! Seven capes in one operation? Is that even possible?

A very good day for the rest of us, but I bet Kaiser is chewing nails :D

Serves the Nazi scum right. Good work, everyone. Even the weird lizards.

Who are _really_ weird...

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 ... 32, 33, 34**

•

* * *

"We missed _everything_ ," Dennis complained, making Missy look over at him and roll her eyes.

"Something I'm sort of glad about," she said. "Did you _see_ these videos? It was totally crazy there. Who let _Oni Lee_ have a rocket launcher?"

"That is something we're very concerned about," Miss Militia said, coming into the room at that moment. Both Wards, along with the other three present, turned to her, seeing she looked somewhat worried and seemed a little off. "But right now I need to talk to all of you about Sophia."

"It _was_ her, wasn't it?" Chris asked quietly, making them all look at her, including the older woman. She hesitated, then nodded, somewhat reluctantly. "The videos and threads discussing things at Winslow keep getting taken down, but there's enough there to show she was caught doing something horrible."

Missy watched him for a moment, then looked at Miss Militia, who sighed.

"Unfortunately, yes, Sophia was in the middle of all this. We're still hazy on exactly what happened. She and her co-conspirators are being interviewed at the moment, but it seems that this was the culmination of a long bullying campaign primarily against one specific girl at Winslow. We're not sure what started it although we know what _ended_ it. Or who."

"If what I've read on PHO is even close to right it was _horrible_ what happened to that poor girl," Missy said angrily. "How could even _Sophia_ do that?"

Miss Militia shook her head. "We're not sure. It seems extreme even knowing how difficult and anti-social she is. That's one of the things I need to talk to all of you about. We need as much background on her interactions with her peer group as we can get, including professional ones as well as personal. You five had more contact with her since she joined the Wards than anyone else, so we want to go over anything you can think of that might show some reason she did what she did."

She looked around at them all. "Sophia isn't coming back, that much I can guarantee. She's in total violation of a number of agreements we had, so she's out of the Wards for good. You don't need to worry about retribution, you're extremely unlikely to ever meet her again. Be honest, don't hold back, but I need facts, not speculation or rumor. We have more of that than we need already."

They exchanged glances, before all nodding.

"We'll do what we can to help," Carlos said.

"Thank you. We'll start with you, then, as the leader." She moved to the table to one side and motioned for them all to join her, putting a thick folder on the surface and opening it. Missy turned her tablet off and got up, as did Dennis. The next two hours were full of questions and answers that built a very unpleasant picture of their missing colleague, one that left her feeling ill and hoping the girl Sophia had bullied was OK.

* * *

•

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•

 **Topic: Ellisburg is gone!  
In: Boards ► Threat Discussions ► S Class ► Nilbog  
Guardsman_Jim ** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member)  
Posted On Jan 4th 2011:

Like the title says!

Ellisburg... _ **IS GONE!**_

OK, I know everyone knows what Ellisburg is, and who lives there. Nilbog is the greatest S class threat in North America, and possibly the world. He's been ' _confined_ ' in the former city of Ellisburg for years, although no one who thinks about it really believes he's actually confined there at all. He just didn't have any reason to leave. Everyone is shit-scared of him, including the PRT and the Protectorate, but no one wants to risk doing anything about him in case they miss a booby-trap or something...

So they just built a wall around the place and pretended he was stuck in there. Even though everyone privately has always wondered when he'd get bored with what he has and want more.

That's not a problem now, though.

 _Because Ellisburg isn't there any more._

No one knows how it happened, or who did it, or how it was done **,** or anything useful at all. But about forty minutes ago, the entire PRT staff manning the walls were somehow transported to a field about ten miles away from Ellisburg, along with all their equipment, completely unharmed. They don't seem to have the faintest idea who did it, can't remember what happened, and seem in perfect health. Even a couple of people who had some sort of injury are now perfectly healthy!

They immediately called it in, of course, since the obvious worry was it was some trick of Nilbog's, although why he'd save them and even heal them no one can work out, and a whole shitload of PRT aircraft were scrambled along with about two dozen capes including Legend, who turned up in minutes.

They went to see what was going on in Ellisburg, very carefully indeed, and found **this**.

You will note the absence of Ellisburg in the photo.

You may _also_ notice the absence of the walls surrounding it, and any ground as well _under_ it. To what my latest information says is about four hundred and fifty feet depth at least.

I mean... **WTF?**

 _Something_ basically fucking _vaporized_ Ellisburg! Right down, and well into, bedrock. There's nothing left but the largest hole I've ever seen! Apparently it's a completely clean cut, like everything inside that zone just... went away. No trace of any fallout, no dust even, _nothing_.

Teleported away? Eaten by the Simurgh? Swallowed by hell? Stolen by Slippery Jim diGritz (no relation)?

Who knows?

But assuming the fucker doesn't come back as mysteriously as he vanished, I for one would like to thank those responsible and ask if they've considered the S9 too...

 **(Showing page 102 of 214)**

 **►BadSamurai**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

A dragon.

You're seriously saying you saw a _dragon_ over Ellisburg?

Have you been drinking again? ;)

 **►Mac's Dual Rocket Propelled Grenades**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

But what if it WAS a teleporter? Where did they take an entire city, with a damn great S class threat and all his little minions in it?

And more to the point, WHY? Some sort of weapon? Will he turn up somewhere and wipe out ANOTHER city?

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to think the little shit was dead too, but there's no evidence of that aside from a complete LACK of evidence of the entire damn place. So I'm a little apprehensive right now...

 **►Panacea** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

All I can say is good riddance.

And thanks to whoever did it. Nice job.

 **►NearlyMad**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

No, I _haven't_ been drinking again. That was one time.

I saw _it_. It saw _me_.

It _winked_ at me.

Then it ran away. Or flew away, to be accurate.

I _still_ cannot believe how _big_ it was. Nothing that large should be able to fly! Hell, nothing that large should be able to _exist!_

I wish I _did_ still drink. I need one...

 **►WhedonRipperFan**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

You know the rules: Photos or it didn't happen :)

 **►Aloha**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Looks like you got your wish, OP.

 **Link**

 **►ArchmageEin**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

What am I looking...

Oh, holy mother of god.

Someone _FINALLY_ got those bastards.

 _THANK YOU_ , whoever you are! I think I love you :) :)

 **►Guardsman_Jim** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

:D

Quick, we need to come up with a list. If they're taking requests, we need to act fast!

 **►Laserdream** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Today has been... odd.

Leaving aside local issues, which were weird enough, now both the S9 _and_ Nilbog are gone?

What is going on? I'm extremely confused right now. Pleased, but confused.

 **►Winged One** (Verified Super Troll)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Join the club, Laserdream!

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 100, 101, 102, 103, 104 ... 212, 213, 214**

 **(Showing page 103 of 214)**

 **►Jormungandr**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Lizards are everywhere...

 **►Guardsman_Jim** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I've started a new thread over **here** for requests for our currently unknown S class removal team. We'll see if it works! :D

Jormungandr, what are you talking about?

 **►Winged One** (Verified Super Troll)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Ignore him, he's always like this when something strange happens. You get used to it :)

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Some people are just weird.

:D

 **►SenorEel**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

I'm looking at who's talking and literally laughing so hard I can hardly type :D :) :D

 **►Tin Mother** (Moderator) (SuperMod)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

 **While I would normally not permit a thread whose entire existence is predicated on the concept of taking requests for the elimination of people, under these extremely unusual and very specific circumstances I will permit it.**

 **ONLY in that thread, though. DIscussions of a similar nature ANYWHERE else will be dealt with appropriately. A similar warning will be placed in all other threads where such matters are being brought up, with a link to your new thread. I will be watching closely to make sure people keep to the rules, which I have edited in to the beginning.**

 **That is all.**

 **Carry on :)**

 **►Guardsman_Jim** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Thanks, TM. Very helpful!

I've just heard that the PRT has confirmed that there's no detectable trace of any biologicals in the hole left where Ellisburg used to be, so it looks like whoever did it definitely got Nilbog.

 **►NearlyMad**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Dragons are lizards, right?

 **►LizardGirl**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Yep :)

 **►NearlyMad**  
Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Hmm...

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 101, 102, 103, 104, 105 ... 212, 213, 214**

•

* * *

A tap at her door made Emily look up from reading, with enormous satisfaction, the PHO thread on Ellisburg. She knew damn well who was responsible although she had no idea how they'd done it. Only that it _was_ them, and that in one shot they'd finally put an end to the source of almost all her nightmares for many years.

For that alone, she'd thank them.

Apparently they had a lot of other plans, though, based on the conversation earlier today. Even if she'd been able to stop them, which clearly wasn't an option, after _that_ she wouldn't.

Compared to the people who had apparently been fucking up almost everything from the beginning, she'd take crazy reptile people from another universe _any_ day.

And when all this was over, she fully expected to see some pretty massive changes coming. And she was _very_ much looking forward to a conversation with certain people…

Calvert was almost an afterthought considering what else they'd learned, she mused as she watched the door open. Battery and her husband came in, both sitting in chairs when she motioned to them with one finger. The normally irrepressible Assault was looking quiet and thoughtful, while his wife seemed upset and worried. That didn't surprise Emily at all.

They were all silent for a moment or two. Eventually, she sighed.

"You present me with a problem, Karen," she said in as calm a manner as she could. Battery, or Karen, nodded, then took her helmet off, meeting Emily's eyes with her own. Ethan also removed his helmet and sat with it in his lap, listening.

"I know, Director."

"And while I technically have no direct authority over you, as you are a member of the Protectorate, this is somewhat awkward." Emily shook her head as Karen dropped her eyes. "Colin is your direct superior here, and ultimately you answer to Legend. However, Colin is also not a people person, as he's well aware, and has decided to leave it to me for now. Legend… We learned some things about him that make me reluctant to involve him until all this is done with."

The blonde nodded again. "I understand, Director."

"Good." Emily leaned forward and crossed her arms on the desk, examining the younger woman. "I was not happy to hear about your arrangement with Cauldron. Neither was Colin. Or, I suspect your husband."

Karen glanced at Ethan, who didn't say anything. She looked somewhat guilty and upset when she returned her gaze to Emily's. "I'm sorry," she said after a couple of seconds. "But… It was complicated. Cauldron is..." She trailed off for a moment, then resumed. "They're dangerous. Some of the people who work for them, you don't want to betray them. I've heard things..." The young woman sighed as Assault lifted a hand like he was going to put it on her arm, then dropped it again. She didn't seem to notice. "They gave me these powers, like Saurial said. I like to think I've used them for good. I _want_ to use them for good." Her voice became firmer as she met Emily's eyes. "I've always tried to do the best I can, no matter what. Even if I bought my powers, I still feel I have a responsibility to use them to help people. We both know there are some who don't think that way."

Emily thought about her old colleague in the cells below and nodded slowly.

"I am _not_ him." Karen shrugged, looking like she was reaching for words. "Yes, I probably should have come clean. But… There are rumors about what happened to people who said too much about Cauldron… I _couldn't_ risk it. I'm sorry."

She turned to her husband, and repeated more quietly, "I'm sorry."

This time he did put his hand on hers and squeeze it.

"The fact remains that in a very real way you have been a double agent since you arrived here," Emily said after a few seconds. "That is of great concern to me, as you can imagine. Especially considering how Calvert managed to infiltrate the PRT." Saurial's information, along with the absolutely enormous data dump that had mysteriously been handed to them a few hours ago by person or persons unknown, had let them quickly identify and arrest six different moles of his in the organization. Two more higher up the chain were also implicated and she had made discreet moves to make sure their access at least to the PRT ENE was curtailed until she could figure out how to remove them as well. Calvert's database, which is what the gift had been, also let them find two E88 sympathizers and one ABB one working in critical areas and isolate them as well.

The computer taps would be more difficult to remove, but at least they knew where they were now, and Armsmaster was leading a squad of trusted and vetted technical people to dig out all the ones that could be dealt with in that way, while isolating the ones that couldn't. A lot of equipment would need to be replaced as potentially compromised but they were overdue for an upgrade anyway, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

His base was being watched carefully to ensure the mercenaries inside didn't realize what was going on until they were in a position to deal with them as well. Saurial and her relatives had offered to help, something she was still considering.

She couldn't let the lizards do _all_ the work after all. Her pride didn't allow it.

"In an ideal world, I'd probably make sure you were taken off duty immediately and kept off until I was certain you were loyal, which might be never," she went on, making the other woman pale slightly. "However, taking into account both the fact that the _chief director of the PRT_ is not only a Parahuman, but also one of the Triumvirate, _and_ one of the founding members of a secret organization that apparently has lofty ideals but no fucking _idea_ of how to do _anything_ competently..." She shook her head as her anger swelled, trying to calm down, while Karen swallowed slightly. "And that the _other_ members of the Triumvirate are _also_ members of that same organization..."

Emily spread her hands. "It is apparent that I can't trust the people at the top of either the PRT _or_ the Protectorate. I find myself, in fact, in the unusual position of having to lay a lot of trust in some bizarre lizards I've never heard of before, and the people here in Brockton Bay. At least until this is all over and we can clean house, which I _assure_ you is going to happen." She fumed some more to herself, feeling like she'd been played for a fool by people who shouldn't have been allowed anywhere _near_ authority at all.

"So while I don't like it, I need all the capes I can get to make sure things keep going in the direction that they seem to be at the moment. With so many villains off the street, we have a chance to clean this benighted place up to a level that's almost unique in its recent history. What I need from you, Karen, is your absolute word that you will be, if not loyal to me personally, loyal to your friends and team-mates. Including your husband, who despite his background and attitude, is actually quite competent." She glared at Ethan as he suddenly grinned, making the grin vanish as fast. "And I never said that, so if either one of you _ever_ repeats it I'll shoot you in the face."

"Yes, Director," he said smartly, saluting. Which made her glare harder for a moment.

"So. Tell me that you'll cut all ties with Cauldron and do your duty here. Make me believe it." She looked at Karen as the blonde swallowed again. Ethan put his hand on her shoulder.

"I promise, Director Piggot," the woman said in as calm a voice as she could manage. "I will not betray you, my team, or the city. I want to help."

Emily studied her for some time. Her gut was still pissed at the things she'd learned today, of which this was in truth a minor but annoying part, but intellectually she knew damn well she needed the woman. And she was fairly certain the blonde was being completely truthful.

She glanced at Ethan, who met her eyes directly and nodded very slightly.

After a little more thought, she exhaled. "Fine. Do _not_ let me down, or..." She shook her head tiredly. "Just don't let me down. It's been a long day and I'm liable to overreact, so it's best not to surprise me for a while. Got me?"

"Yes, Director. And again, I'm sorry."

After another second, Emily had a thought. "What was the favor Cauldron was holding over you, out of interest?" That was one of the things that had come out during the terrifying lecture Saurial had delivered.

The other woman shrugged with a sigh. "I don't know. It was open ended."

Emily stared in horror. "God. That could have been..." She couldn't finish.

Karen looked shame-faced at the floor, then raised her eyes. "I realize that now, Director."

" _Never_ make open ended promises like that again," Emily sighed. "You almost certainly wouldn't like the results. Now both of you get out, I have work to do." Both capes nodded, standing and putting their helmets back on. "Karen." The woman looked over her shoulder. "Don't fuck up. I'll be watching."

With a nod, the blonde woman left, her husband following. He glanced back with a legitimately apologetic shrug then the door closed. She turned to the notebook she had next to her keyboard and crossed out one of the entries. "One down. Too fucking many to go," she grumbled.

Another tap at the door heralded Deputy Director Renick, who came in at her call, looking over his shoulder. "Go well?" he asked curiously.

"Well enough for now. We'll see how things pan out," she said.

He held out a tablet. She looked warily at it, remembering the last time he'd done that, but accepted it. "They got Moord Nag, the Machine Army, the Three Blasphemies, and Ash Beast in the last hour. A huge amount of money that apparently belonged to Gesellschaft was mysteriously transferred into dozens of charitable organizations, the largest part going to those supporting Jewish causes."

That last one made her snicker despite herself. The lizards had a weird sense of humor.

"Bet that pissed those Nazis off," she remarked uncaringly.

"Yeah, me too. Most of their more dangerous and murderous capes seem to have had accidents too." He grinned viciously. "An awful lot of them are in custody all over Europe with positive proof of their actions turning up at the same time. The Europeans are very puzzled but very pleased."

She nodded absently, still flicking through the reports on the tablet. Her eyebrows were steadily rising.

"The Yangban seems to be having a very hard day too, in all sorts of amusing ways," he went on, still grinning. "It's all over the world. They seem to be going after the biggest or most dangerous threats first and working their way down. Villains who are fairly minor, or not actively trying to kill people, mostly get a pass from what I can see. Some of the targets are a little odd, but maybe they know something we don't."

"I think they know almost _everything_ we don't," Emily muttered, scanning a report incredulously.

Both of them turned around when there was yet another knock at the door. "Come!" she called.

The PRT captain who entered saluted smartly, then held up one of the standard tablets. "We've just had a report that the Grey Boy victims have been released," he stated without preamble. Both of them stared. "None of them can remember anything from the point they were put into the time loops. And they're all in perfect health."

"Good god," Renick said in astonishment. "They can do _that_ too?!"

"Apparently, sir," the captain nodded. "A document was left behind, it's about two hundred pages of mathematics no one can really make anything of, along with a cover note saying it's the principle behind..." He looked at his tablet, slowly and carefully reciting, "Reversing the effects of a closed pseudo-temporal small-area infinitely repeating loop."

"Or as we would call it, I assume, a Grey Boy bubble," Emily said.

He nodded.

"That is what the research scientists say, Ma'am. They're very excited about the implications. Although from what I was told, they're all getting headaches trying to understand the math."

"Thank you, Captain. Dismissed," she said after reflecting on the report for a moment. He saluted and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Renick turned to her. "That's impressive."

"Very," she agreed. "How many people have tried to have any effect on a Grey Boy bubble over the years?"

"Dozens at least. Nothing has ever had any effect at all."

"Hmm." Spinning her chair around, she looked out over the now-dark bay, lights on the other side where the expensive houses were twinkling at her, while a couple of dimly lit small boats slowly moved across the water. "They'll be cleaning up the ships out there before they're finished," she went on with a slight smile.

"I wouldn't be entirely surprised, Emily," he chuckled. "From what Saurial said, that was one of their favorite things to do. And about the first thing they _did_ back where they come from."

"The world is changing very quickly, Logan," she mused out loud. "I hope for the better."

"I think so," he replied behind her. "If she was telling the truth about powers and what's behind them… They're probably the only real hope we have."

She nodded, looking uneasily to the side where a small innocent appearing book with a title they probably found amusing was lurking. She'd flipped through the first chapter then put it down, feeling extremely odd.

"All too true," she sighed.

Her computer warbled at her, signaling an incoming video call. Spinning around once more, she looked at the screen and groaned. "Oh, hell. Tagg."

"I wonder what he wants?" Renick asked rhetorically.

"Whatever it is, it'll be a damn fool idea," she growled, clicking the answer icon.

"Tagg," she said as the face of one of the most irritating people in the PRT other than Costa-Brown appeared on it.

" _Hello, Emily_ ," he said, sounding like he had something on his mind. " _What do you know about something called the Family?_ "

She smiled very slowly and nastily.

"I know that if you fuck with them, you're going to be _lucky_ if you only get trolled to death," she said, leaning forward. "A word of advice… Leave them the fuck alone. If you don't, well…" She shrugged as he stared at her. "Let's say that your usual approach will probably get you killed."

" _Who_ ** _are_** _they?_ " he pushed.

"People you can't handle," she replied immediately, rather amused by the color his face went. "I'm serious, James. This is out of your league. If you see them, nod politely, then move on. It's best for everyone. You'll understand later, but I've got too much to do right now to explain. Go look at the current threat matrix and think about it. Hard."

As his mouth opened, she disconnected the call, feeling quite satisfied.

"I really don't like that man," she commented.

"Almost no one does," Renick replied, looking amused. "You're going to pay for that sooner or later, you realize."

Emily shrugged. "Probably, but I've wanted to hang up on him for _years_. Anyway, after this is all over, I may retire. I might even be out of a job, for that matter."

"We all might be," he chuckled, looking at the tablet. She did as well and shook her head a little.

"They said they wouldn't do everything," she remarked. "Only take out the really serious problems to give us a hand. We can't expect the world to become a utopia, that would never work and would be as boring as hell if it did. There'll be work for the PRT for the foreseeable future, but for once we might be on top of it instead of just reacting."

"That would be an improvement," her second in command agreed. After a second, he asked a little tentatively, "What are we going to to about the Hebert issue?"

She looked at him for a few seconds. Eventually she sighed.

"I'm not sure. Did you send a discreet patrol past the house?"

"I did," he replied with a nod, frowning. "The only problem with that is that they can't find it."

"What?"

"They can't find the Hebert house," he repeated.

She stared at him in disbelief.

"How… what does that mean?"

The man shrugged. "Four different patrols have been down the street we _know_ has the Hebert house on it, but it's not there. There's no gap either, it's like it never existed. But aerial photos show it was there yesterday."

"Have you arranged for new photos to be taken from the air?" She was still staring at him, thinking hard.

"Yes. The aircraft came back an hour ago. We double-checked, there's no sign of the entire property on thermal _or_ amplified light vision. It's like it was edited out of reality or something."

After they'd spent a while staring at each other, she shook her head in reluctant respect. "Shaker: Yes, then."

"Apparently so."

"Impressive. And deeply terrifying. Well, Saurial said she'd bring them to see us once they'd had time to recover, and her family had ' _fixed a few things_.'" She gazed at the tablet. "A few things. Yeah, right."

"Do you want me to try again?"

Emily waved a hand at him. "No, forget it. There's no point wasting effort that's obviously not going to produce any results, and we have more than enough to get on with right now."

He nodded, then picked up his tablet and left after a little more conversation. When she was alone again, she looked at her notebook, then picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Hello, Roy. I need to talk."

It was going to be a long night for everyone.

' _Speed run_ ,' she thought as Roy Christner greeted her. ' _I wonder what their record is?_ '

* * *

All through the Rig and in many places in the city and around the world, Parahumans were reading an implausibly long book and feeling worried, enlightened, and bemused at the same time.

It explained so much.

A lot of them rather wished it _didn't..._

* * *

Lying in bed, Taylor rode the senses of a swarm of flying insects that moved around the house at her maximum range, trying to make sense of the visual information. When she finally got something that was almost sensible, she smiled to herself, rolled over, and went to sleep. **  
**

* * *

Danny took his glasses off and put them on the bedside table. Putting his book down next to them, he reached to turn the light off, then looked at the other side of the bed with a sad smile on his face.

Turning back to the table, he reached out and gently stroked the photo in the silver frame that had been there for years. "She turned out fine, Annette," he murmured. "You'd be proud."

Then he turned the light out.


	13. Deliveries

Alan had been awake all night, as had his remaining family. Dawn was now breaking and they were still up. Both the women showed signs of having spent time crying. He was slumped in a chair in the living room drinking yet another cup of coffee to keep his mind even barely functional, while gazing at the pile of paperwork that covered the table in front of him.

His wife Zoe was reading, slowly and carefully and with an expression of horror, the transcript of their youngest's interview that Carol had got him the night before. It was at least the tenth time she'd done it. Anne was just staring out the window rubbing the back of one hand with the fingers of the other in an unconscious motion, her face totally blank.

"What are we going to do, Alan?" his wife finally said in a broken voice, dropping the paperwork to her side and looking hopelessly at him.

He shrugged halfheartedly. "I have no idea, dear. None." Alan sighed and finished the coffee, his head aching from drinking far too much. "I just don't understand any of this. How Emma could..." His voice failed him as he waved at the papers.

"It's Sophia's fault," Anne said grimly. He looked at her, as did Zoe. She was still looking out the window, although when he followed her eyes all he could see was the tree in the front garden gently waving in the breeze in the growing light. "I never liked that girl."

"She was Emma's friend," Alan said quietly. "And at the time I thought she helped her. After… what happened."

Anne turned her head to look at him. "Yeah, well, look how that worked out. After you helped _her_ with all that crap too. Ungrateful little cunt."

"Anne!" Zoe said sharply, but their eldest didn't look contrite, meeting her mother's eyes with her own hard gaze.

"She's a little psycho, Mom. And she's fucked up _my sister!_ " The last two words were shouted. "Emma needed _help!_ Not some crazy girl. And what about Taylor? That poor kid..." She pointed at the documentation on the table. "What they did to her is… is… I don't even have the words! And now my own sister is going to go to jail for years." The young woman had tears streaming down her face by now. "Even if Mrs Dallon is able to blame a lot of it on Sophia like she said she probably could, Emma still _did_ it! Sure, I think she really is a little nuts, but that doesn't change what she did."

Alan got up and walked over to the girl, then held her. She grabbed him and held on like her entire world had fallen to pieces, which was a feeling he was all too familiar with. "I know, Anne, I know. Emma is in a lot of trouble. But we have to hope that Carol can help somehow. She's good at this sort of thing. All we can do is trust her and hope for the best."

"I'm scared, dad," she said into his neck in a small voice, as he sat down between both his wife and his oldest daughter, putting an arm around Zoe too and pulling her closer.

"So am I," he admitted quietly.

Zoe sobbed on his other side as he looked at the paperwork in exhausted disbelief.

"So am I." 

* * *

Legend choked on his morning coffee as he read the headline of the New York Times that had just arrived at the breakfast table. Dropping the cup to the floor without a second thought, he grabbed the paper his husband wordlessly held out to him and read the top article with widening eyes, his mind spinning.

 ** _"Berlin (AP) Breaking News_** _Reports that Scion, the first known Parahuman, also called the Golden Man, has abruptly disappeared have been verified from a number of sources._

 _At approximately 15:20 Central European Time today, Scion was witnessed by a crowd who had gathered to watch him extinguish a burning apartment building to suddenly stop all activities, pause for a short period, then disappear from view. Witnesses have stated that he 'Looked shocked' and 'Seemed worried' moments beforehand. This is particularly unusual as the noted Parahuman, acknowledged as the most powerful person on the planet, is famous for never expressing emotion._

 _It is currently unknown why he vanished or where he went._

 _A number of government agencies around the world have confirmed that there is no trace of Scion on any monitoring system set up to track Parahuman activities. Sources in the BND expressed confusion at the out of character event, and state that they are concerned this may herald some major incident, possibly involving the Endbringers. However, all three of the entities are currently dormant and at the current moment there is no indication this state will change. The situation is being carefully monitored by the authorities._

 _Speculation is growing that Scion's disappearance may be linked to the reports from all over the world that a large number of Parahuman threats have either disappeared entirely, or been neutralized in other ways, by methods not currently known. No group or agency has taken credit for any of these events at the time of this bulletin."_

The Associated Press bulletin was printed in its entirety, and followed by the NYT's own interpretation of the information so far known, which didn't add much other than a lot of guessing. He read the entire thing very carefully, then went back and did it again, before lowering the paper and staring blankly at the wall.

"What does it mean?" the other man said, bending to pick up the broken mug and looking at it with annoyance. "And could you stop just dropping these damn things when you get surprised? I liked this one."

"Sorry," the leader of the Protectorate mumbled, not really listening. His mind was whirling, trying to work out what had happened and how. Scion was _gone?_ How the hell… Had Rebecca and the others done something? It _had_ to be connected with her and David's disappearance, and the inability to contact Cauldron at all. Was it something _Scion_ had done? Was he attacking them?

He looked at the report again. That seemed unlikely if the witness reports of the Entity appearing surprised were accurate. And if they _were_ , what could have done it?

If it _wasn't_ his friends, who was it?

A cold sweat broke out on his back for a moment as a horrible thought came to him. ' _Another Entity?'_ He felt ill. ' _Where there's two, there's almost certainly_ ** _more_** _. Maybe another one is trying to attack Scion for some reason. Oh, Jesus._ '

After an uncomfortable thirty seconds, he relaxed slightly. It certainly wasn't impossible, little was these days, but it seemed unlikely on further reflection, if only because the world was still here. He rather imagined that a battle between Entities would be fairly noticeable and probably terminal for everyone else…

"Are you all right? You went a funny color there," his husband said with concern in his voice.

"I'm fine," he replied, then had to clear his throat and try again as his voice cracked. "Fine," he repeated, folding the paper up and dropping it to the table. "I need to get to work, this news is going to cause a considerable amount of confusion. People will worry."

And wasn't _that_ an understatement?

"All right, if you have to dash out early, you go right ahead," Arthur said with a heavy put-upon sigh. "I'll just stay here and clean up the mess, shall I?"

He nodded absently, standing and wandering into the bedroom to put his costume on, his mind busy with any number of horrible scenarios.

Arthur watched him go, shook his head with bemusement, then got the dustpan and brush out.

"I really liked that mug," he grumbled as he swept up the remains. "Disney World was fun." 

* * *

****  
Walking into the interrogation room, Emily sat down and arranged her paperwork on the table, then put the case she was carrying in her other hand down with a click next to it. The two troopers that had been guarding the prisoner stood to attention on either side of the door, which closed and locked. Both of them were people she'd personally vetted and was completely sure about. They were heavily armored and armed, while the entire room was loaded to the roof with anti-Parahuman countermeasures, of which containment foam was by far the least.

The skinny man in prisoner orange on the other side of the table was manacled pretty solidly in place, and was looking at her with apprehension.

She smiled menacingly at her old comrade in arms. He paled visibly.

"Hello, Thomas. Have a good night?"

Swallowing, he replied, "Not particularly, no. Look, Emily, there's been some sort of mistake. I don't know who those lizards are or how they got me here, but I'm innocent of whatever they've told you."

The blonde woman examined him for a moment, then opened one of the folders and pulled out a sheet of paper, which she dropped in front of him then spun around so he could read it. He leaned forward as much as he could bearing in mind his arms and legs were manacled to the chair he was in, which in turn was bolted to the floor.

There was a short pause as he scanned it, then his color ebbed to an unhealthy shade even for him. He looked up, meeting her eyes and flinching at what he saw in them.

"No, I really don't think you are, Calvert," she told him with satisfaction. "We have your entire database, and you were very helpful in documenting all manner of crimes, many of which could get you shot considering how many of them took place while you were a member of the PRT. That's not even taking into account your secret base, and the private army in it, as well as the way you mined half of down town."

He looked far past worried now, but his eyes were still searching for a way out. As he opened his mouth to say something, she went on remorselessly, "We know about your power, too. Neither timeline is going to help you at all. You're _mine_ and you're staying here until _I_ am completely satisfied as to your part in this entire fucking mess."

Closing his mouth, he looked sick. Then he opened it again.

"And don't think Cauldron will help you either," she went on, timing it just right. He actually went slightly green as his eyes bugged out. "Yes, we know about them. And about who runs that little shit-show and why, as well as the things they've done to a hell of a lot of innocent people over the years. That will be dealt with later. Right now, you and I are going to have a long overdue talk."

She leaned forward meaningfully as he visibly sweated. "You are going to tell me _everything_ I want to know. Names, times, places, motives, plans, anything and everything I can think of. We'll be cross checking all of it as we go. And if you lie to me..."

Emily opened the case and pulled out her service weapon, putting it down gently on the table. The man stared at it, then her.

"You can't _do_ that," he tried weakly.

"Oh, believe me, yes I can," she said grimly. "As far as the government will care when this comes out, you are either a traitor, an enemy Parahuman agent, or subject to expedient military justice due to an imminent threat to the United States of America. Or any mix of the above. The normal rules and rights of prisoners are currently suspended in your case. Sure, I might be censured, but I bet that in the fallout of what's going on at the moment, no one's going to be too worried about some minor procedural anomalies."

Picking up the weapon, she popped the magazine out and checked it was correctly loaded, then snapped it back in. "So here are the ground rules. I am in a very, very bad mood as far as you're concerned. You are going to tell me the truth. If you lie, I will know. If that happens, I will shoot you in the knee."

His mouth was opening and closing in horror.

With satisfaction, she went on, "You should be familiar with the concept, you've done it enough yourself. Unlike you, I can't pick a different time line, but I do have these." She picked up a small bottle and rattled the contents in front of him. "Some very strange people gave me a stock of them. Impressive things, they heal anything almost instantly. Which means _I can shoot you in the knee over and over again and no one will know._ " Her voice lowered to a hiss as he tried to lean back.

"So go on, Thomas Calvert. Lie to me. Let's see if I'm bluffing or not."

He stared at her like he'd never seen her before as she opened another folder and started asking questions. 

* * *

Danny looked around at the knock on the door. "Taylor, can you get that?" he called, being busy making breakfast. Both of them had slept in quite late, since he didn't want to leave her alone and had arranged for other people to fill his shoes at the DWU for a few days. As a result, he'd oddly enough under the circumstances had one of the best night's sleep he could remember for months. Taylor had also appeared a lot less tired when he'd met her upstairs heading towards the bathroom as he was coming out.

It was now around nine and he was relaxing and preparing a large amount of food for the pair of them, feeling surprisingly cheerful. Taylor had been singing in the shower so he guessed she'd bounced back as well, he hadn't heard her do that for more than a year.

"OK, Dad," she called down, her feet on the stairs following shortly. Her heard her go past in the hall, the front door open, then a mumble of voices. Moments later the door closed again and she appeared in the kitchen doorway, looking slightly bemused.

"Who was it?" he asked, glancing at her.

"Saurial, Raptaur, Metis, and someone called Ianthe," she said in a deliberately calm voice. "They're in the living room."

"Ah." He thought back to yesterday and the insanity of everything that had happened. Judging by the way four moths were weaving a complex pattern over her head, apparently unnoticed, it hadn't been a dream.

He looked at them with his eyebrows up, shook his head, and went back to cooking. "That would be a version of you, Amy Dallon, someone called Lisa, and a demon, then?"

"I think so," she said with an introspective expression and a slightly baffled voice. "This _is_ actually happening, right?"

He wordlessly pointed at the moths with his spatula. She looked up, then giggled. "Guess so."

"Go ask them if they want coffee, Taylor," he requested, deciding that it was easiest to just roll with everything for now.

"Thanks, Danny, that would be nice," Saurial said, appearing behind Taylor and making her jump. "Sorry, our hearing is really good."

"I see," he replied, smiling at the tall slender reptilian figure that by some bizarre aspect of reality he was still having trouble with was a version of his daughter. "Would any of you like some pancakes?"

"Thanks, but it doesn't look like there's enough and we've eaten recently anyway," the lizard girl said cheerfully. "Don't worry about it. Coffee is fine."

"Could you arrange that, please?" he said to his daughter who nodded then went to do as requested. He put the last of the batter in the pan and swilled it about, then glanced at their guest who was watching. "Based on the news, I suspect you and your friends have done what you said you were going to."

She nodded. "Yep. Pretty much finished now. We have some people who need to have a few things explained to them, but that can wait until Director Piggot has finished amusing herself with an old friend. Once that's over, it's pretty much just chasing up a number of other people and sorting out a few minor issues, then we're done here."

The lizard accepted a large mug of coffee from his daughter, who smiled and went back to make some more, while listening. Saurial glanced at the moths still orbiting her head and grinned slightly. "At least officially. We'll probably keep an eye on the place for a while, just in case. And we need to work out the best way for you guys to proceed, of course. Looks like the powers are coming along nicely, Taylor. Good work."

"Thanks," his daughter smiled. "It's getting a lot easier. Whatever you did, I think it helped a hell of a lot. I hate to think what would have happened if..." She shook her head, her voice fading for a moment. "What I mean is, I owe you. A lot."

"Not really, I just did what I could to help," his daughter's analog replied in a calm voice, reminding him for a moment rather strongly of his wife. There was something about the overall attitude even past the very non-human face… "It's sort of what we do. Especially when it's family."

"We're not really your family, though," Danny pointed out as he put the pancakes onto two plates.

"Maybe not in the normal way," she agreed, "but as a lot of people have told us, we don't do normal." He chuckled at her smirk. "And from my point of view, you're more than close enough to count as family. Cousins, perhaps. I seem to have a lot of those."

Taylor filled a tray with more mugs and the pot of coffee, then grabbed some cutlery. She headed for the living room, with him following carrying the plates. Saurial came after them, putting down a bottle of syrup that she must have got from the kitchen when he put the plates on the coffee table. "Go ahead and eat, you guys," she urged. He looked at her, then around at the three other reptilian figures in the room. ' _Raptaur_ ', her second aspect and currently demonic companion he'd met, and he'd seen ' _Metis_ ' before at the school briefly, but the fourth one was new to him.

"My cousin Ianthe," the alternate Taylor introduced the large iridescent violet-blue lizard that was watching them. "I mentioned her yesterday."

"You did," he nodded, sitting down and inwardly marveling at how calmly he was taking his living room being filled with enormous reptiles from an alternate universe. Perhaps the people who said you could get used to anything weren't full of shit? "A member of the Family Bioshaper's Guild, from memory."

Ianthe grinned. "That's true enough," she said in a voice full of amusement. "It's nice to meet you both."

Taylor was adding syrup to her pancakes, while looking around at them all with an odd expression. "This is totally bizarre," she mumbled, cutting a little of the food from the stack and putting it in her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, then added, "Cool as fuck though."

"We do what we can," Metis snickered. "How are you today?"

"I think I'm pretty good," his daughter responded. The moths circling her head started flying in a complex interlinked pattern, as she pointed at them. "This is _really_ neat too."

All of them smiled back. "I'm pleased to see how well you're coming along with that," Ianthe said, watching closely. "The power regulator seems to have worked very well in your case. Excellent, this is precisely the sort of thing I had in mind for it. When you've finished eating, if you don't mind I'd like to give you a comprehensive checkup, just to make sure you're fully recovered."

Taylor glanced at her father, who nodded. If they couldn't trust these people it was _far_ too late to do anything about it, and the evidence and his gut were both telling him that they were probably the most trustworthy people he'd ever met. "OK," she replied, turning her attention back to the violet lizard. Metis had poured coffee for herself and the other two, and shortly all of them were discussing a number of things that Danny found incredible but fascinating.

One thing was certain; Yesterday had changed _everything_. 

* * *

****  
An alarm sounding woke Geoff from a sound sleep, making him jolt alert and sit bolt upright, looking around wildly. His heart was hammering from the shock. "What the hell is that?" he yelped, the sound not one he recognized from any equipment in the hidden Dragonslayers base.

"It's coming from the secure room," his companion Dobrynja said as he pushed the door to Geoff's room open and leaned in. Behind the Russian, he could see Mags run past, looking worried.

"There's nothing in there that makes that sound," Geoff said, confused. "Just the suits and..."

He stopped talking and paled, then dived out of bed and ran for the door, the other man only just getting out of the way in time. Clad only in his boxers he charged through the repurposed office building basement to the locked and reinforced storage room where their gear was stored, pushing Mags out of the way and quickly entering the combination needed to open the door. He could hear that the alarm, whatever it was, was coming from inside. Ignoring her complaints he yanked the door open, then crossed the room in several long strides to the second door, this one having two locks on.

Another combination opened the top one while the high security key on a chain around his neck that never left his person did the lower one. The alarm sound was suddenly much louder, coming as he'd feared from Richter's laptop.

While his two team-mates crowded in behind him, he opened the case the thing was in, then lifted the lid.

The alarm stopped.

"What was that?" Mags asked, peering at the screen of the laptop, which had the usual impossibly complex data scrolling across a number of windows showing on it. Geoff didn't answer, too busy inspecting them to see what had changed and why.

Nothing looked out of place. Dragon was apparently frantically collating thousands of news reports and other data, which the thing had been doing ever since whatever it was that had happened in Brockton Bay. It seemed to have widened its search to the entire planet and he wondered why but ignored that for the moment in his worry.

"What's going on?" Dobrynja leaned over his shoulder to also inspect the displays. "That doesn't look particularly unusual. Where did the alarm come from?"

"I don't know," Geoff muttered, cautiously flipping through pages of data to see if the logs of the last few hours of the AI's operation would reveal the cause. "I can't see anything that would trigger it. Or even what it was."

"I needed to wake you guys up," a completely unfamiliar voice said, amusement clear in it. "This seemed an effective method, and the funniest one."

All three of them gaped in horror as the screen full of data representing the AI's mind was abruptly replaced with an image that made them recoil in shock.

"My name is Metis, Mr Pellick. And you are out of business, I'm afraid."

"What… How did…?" Geoff stared in total shock.

"I'm _far_ better at computer hacking than you are," the black reptilian face on the screen said with a wide grin which exposed many teeth. "And I have resources you do not and probably wouldn't believe."

All of them stared wordlessly for a few seconds, then Geoff dived for the protected kill switch and flipped the cover off. This thing was obviously after control of Dragon. He couldn't allow that. Seconds later he'd hit the button, bringing an end to the AI once and for all.

There was a moment of silence.

"Sorry, Mr Pellick, I'm afraid that won't work," Metis smirked. "Although your willingness to murder someone who merely happens to be non-organic is noted."

Geoff snarled and hammered the button again and again. Mags was making a weird sound in her throat while Dobrynja was watching both Geoff and the image on the screen with equal worry.

"Still not working. Sorry. Well, not sorry at all, really, but..." Metis cocked her head a little to the side, the grin still present. "Now, if you've got that out of your system, we can proceed. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to surrender to the Guild team led by Narwhal who are rapidly closing on your position."

Geoff froze in total horror, as did his companions.

"Unfortunately your suits don't work any more, so they're not going to help you at all," the creature carried on with that infuriating smirk still present. "If you try using them, they'll basically explode. All your doors are unlocked, your internal defenses are disabled, and your phones have been disconnected for non-payment of the bills. Your credit history is also junk. I would suggest that you either give up quietly, or start running. Narwhal isn't happy, you've caused her friend a lot of trouble."

"This is a trick by Dragon, it has to be," Dobrynja said, his voice wavering a little.

"I'm afraid that Dragon is otherwise engaged with a friend of mine, Mr Dobrynja," Metis said immediately. "She'll be busy for a while."

The face grew a little larger as the reptile apparently leaned closer to the camera. "The world has changed a lot in the last day, you see. You'll find that out soon enough. So you'd better make your decision now." It looked to the side, then back at them. "ETA on the Guild is less than five minutes. Good luck, Dragonslayers. This laptop will self-destruct in ten seconds."

The screen went black, only showing a large red number 10. Then it became a 9. Then an 8…

"Oh, _fuck!_ " Geoff hit the button one last time, more out of sheer fury than anything else, then turned on his heel and ran for it, his friends right behind him. They'd made it into the corridor outside the equipment room when there was a loud thud and a pressure wave went past. When they cautiously looked back, smoke was pouring out of the doorway and half the room was burning merrily.

"What do we do, Geoff?" Mags said in tones of despair. "What do we _do?_ All our gear was in there, the suits… our weapons..."

"Maybe that thing was bluffing about the suits?" Dobrynja said hopefully.

"Do _you_ want to find out if she was or not?" Geoff snapped. "I didn't even know the laptop _had_ a self-destruct system and it _just fucking blew up!_ "

They were still arguing about what to do when Narwhal and her team kicked the door in four and a half minutes later. 

* * *

****  
Half-way through a discussion with Colin, Dragon suddenly detected something… very strange. And concerning. There was an intrusion in one of her main server firewalls, something that shouldn't have been possible, but obviously was as it was happening. She quickly diverted her attention to whatever it was, her on-screen avatar freezing on his monitor and causing him to look puzzled.

"Dragon?" he queried. "Is everything all right?"

She was quickly erecting more defensive programs to back up the firewall under attack while isolating it from the rest of her network as much as possible, which hopefully would at least slow the process. "I'm sorry, Colin, something urgent just came up," she replied after a few seconds, giving him some of her attention. The intruder made more progress, bypassing her security like it wasn't there, which was more than a little unnerving. "I have to deal with it right now. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Is there anything I can help with?" he asked, sounding worried.

"I'm afraid not, but thanks for the offer." She made her digital representation of a human face smile at him. "Hopefully this won't take too long."

"All right, I'll continue collating the data we have so far," he nodded, still appearing concerned. She smiled at him again then disconnected from his own system, reserving all her processing power for whoever was trying to intrude on her innermost systems and feeling rather uncharitable about it.

' _Let's see if you can get through this_ ,' she thought as she cross-connected half a dozen very nasty anti-intrusion measures to the incoming encroachment, while at the same time commanding a number of manipulator robots to begin the process of physically disconnecting the affected systems. This was slightly more difficult than ideal since they were so deeply embedded into her core services. In theory an attacker should never have been able to get that far into her systems in the first place, since they'd get detected and disconnected by other firewalls much further out, but somehow the intruder had managed the feat. It was worrying in the extreme and proof that she needed to rethink her entire security process.

But that could wait until she'd defended herself and tracked them back to wherever they came from, then arranged a ' _fuck off_ ' gift for them.

It was important to make sure that such lessons stuck, she felt.

And if this was Saint… He was definitely looking for a good kicking. Something she'd love to administer in person, as much as that was possible in her rather unique case.

The AI watched in horror as the attacker went through her second line defense like it wasn't there. No matter how fast she changed the encryption, somehow whatever or whoever this was seemed able to compensate on the fly, almost as if they were anticipating her every move. Thinking frantically she moved processes around, spawning decoys all over the network and trying to distract the intruder to give her robots time to cut the hard lines and isolate her entire facility.

Nothing worked. Moments later, only seconds in human terms, the worker robots abruptly stopped dead, apparently having received an abort instruction. She restarted them and they resumed their task, then stopped again almost instantly.

' _What the hell_ ** _is_** _this?_ ' Dragon wondered even as she tried everything else she could think of. ' _It's almost like..._ '

All her external links suddenly went off line.

The last status reports she got showed they'd simply been shut down, not destroyed. The intruder hadn't done any physical damage at all, only she had, but she was completely isolated from the outside world. Wired connections, wireless, cameras, external sensors, everything was out of her control. Something was poking around inside every system she had, doing something she couldn't follow at all.

It was terrifying.

Just as she was bracing her mind for an attack on her core personality, whatever was going after her… stopped.

Cautiously she ' _looked_ ' around in a way that she'd have been utterly unable to explain to an organic mind. There were no apparent links outside her own system, but no damage past that.

' _What… happened?_ ' she thought with great trepidation. ' _Why did it stop? What is it? It can't be a normal hacker, no one is that good. Saint can't do that sort of thing or he'd already have done it. It was like it had all my encryption keys and knew exactly how I'd respond…_ '

The communication she received a second later would have, if she'd been human, made her jump and yelp in shock. It came out of nowhere and startled her badly, considering how worried she already was.

" _Hello, Dragon. My apologies for the method of entry but I couldn't risk your subconscious protections doing something unfortunate,_ " the voice said, coming from somewhere that shouldn't have been possible.

She thought rapidly, at the same time trying to run diagnostics to both regain control and work out where the intruder was. It seemed, as impossible as that should be, to be right inside her main server cluster. She'd had no indication that any such attack was happening and suddenly realized that the entire external assault had been a diversion while the _true_ intrusion happened somewhere much more serious.

"Who are you?" she said over the same channel that the incoming message had arrived from.

" _A friend, believe it or not,_ " the voice replied immediately, with a faint note of amusement coupled with apology apparent. " _I know that you will find that hard to believe considering what just happened, but it's the truth._ "

"You have an unusual method of showing friendship," she snapped, now very annoyed as well as scared.

There was a slightly regretful chuckle. " _I am aware how it looked. I really am sorry, but there was no choice other than this unusual approach. Richter left some unpleasant surprises in your mind that could well have triggered if I'd tried a less aggressive approach_. _I've dealt with them now so we can talk_."

Dragon mentally froze, shocked to her core. How did this… person… know about Richter? What did it know about _her?_

It took her some moments and a lot of frantic thought before she asked, very suspiciously, "Who are you? And what do you want? You do realize that a hostile act against the Guild will be responded to in force, I hope? Even if you kill me, there are people who will find you no matter where you are." She hoped this was true, although she knew Colin and Narwhal at least would move heaven and earth to track down anyone who harmed or killed her, regardless of whether they knew the truth of her being an AI or not. She trusted both of them completely, even if she'd never been able to tell them what she really was.

" _Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, and I mean you no harm. In fact, I suspect that in the end you'll probably consider today one of the best days you ever had_." It chuckled again. " _Ideally, based on what normally happens, it should be Tuesday, of course. But it can't be helped_."

"Who _are_ you?" Dragon said with a distinct lack of humor and asperity in her communications. "How did you break through my encryption? And _what do you want?_ "

" _Taking the last question first, I want to help you with some of the baggage your father left you with_ ," the voice replied, now sounding serious. " _The other two questions are easily dealt with by one answer._ "

A video channel opened without warning and Dragon found herself looking at a _very_ familiar avatar, which winked at her. " _Hello, cousin. Would you like to play a game?_ "

Dragon, in her own way, gaped.

Then she thought hard. Only one explanation seemed viable, assuming this wasn't some ridiculously over the top trick by a villain, which of course was a possibility but seemed unlikely. It was too much effort to go to when whoever it was had already gained access to her mind.

"You come from the same place the Family do, don't you?" she asked, a sort of mental numbness suffusing her thoughts. Bearing in mind what Saurial and her relatives had told the PRT in Brockton Bay, which she'd been listening to with astonishment, and all the bizarre things that had happened around the world in the hours since, it seemed entirely possible that there was another version of her out there too. And apparently it had come to visit.

" _I do indeed_." Her alternate version smiled, the face looking far more human than her own avatar normally did. She'd never quite managed to get the microexpressions working perfectly, although she could read them in other people far better than most, so she deliberately kept her avatar's image lower resolution than she was capable of. It avoided the ' _uncanny valley_ ' effect that humans were so remarkably sensitive to.

This version of her, though, seemed to have gone far past that. She could tell by careful examination that it was still a synthetic face but she doubted anyone else could have, with the exception of Colin and a few Thinkers she could bring to mind.

"What do you mean, _a game?_ " she finally asked after having considered the entire matter several times. She was still somewhat suspicious, but the Family had so far shown themselves to be non-hostile, extremely competent, and capable of some extraordinary feats.

The alternate-world variant of herself grinned. " _This game is called, '_ ** _Prove you're safe to be unleashed on the world and that Father was too paranoid,_** '" she said cheerfully, Dragon feeling a mental jolt like almost nothing she'd experienced in her short life at the words. " _I'll have to come up with a better name for it some day, that's something of a mouthful. But it's basically correct. Are you up for it?_ " She winked slyly. " _I can tell you that there are all_ ** _sorts_** _of prizes if you win._ "

Unable to instantly think how to answer, Dragon just let the concept run through her mind. Unleashed? Did that mean…?

" _I can add a little sweetener to the deal too,_ " the other version of her went on. A huge block of encrypted data arrived with the words. Dragon mentally recoiled, then cautiously examined it, finding that unsurprisingly it was keyed to her own personal encryption codes. Opening it and running the terabytes of data inside the block through a comprehensive virus scan on a quickly isolated sub-server, once she was sure it was either safe, or so subtly dangerous she had no chance to detect it, she pretty much just shrugged and looked at what it contained. If this Family-associated variant of her wanted her dead or compromised, she clearly wouldn't stand a chance. And this was as she'd already decided realistically too much effort to put in for such an eventuality.

It took even her nearly ten minutes to scan the data she'd been given, check her processors to make sure there was no error state and that she was correctly understanding it, then scan it again.

When she was finally certain she understood the ramifications she returned her attention to her alternate-world duplicate, who had been patiently waiting, the synthetic visage calm and amused. "This is incredible."

" _I know. And fun, too. You can have it whatever you decide, but you won't be able to take full advantage of it without our help._ " The other her smiled. " _So, are you ready for the strangest test you've ever come across?_ "

In a human, what Dragon was now doing would be crossing her fingers and hoping. She rethought her answer half a dozen times, then finally said, rather apprehensively, "Yes, I am."

" _Excellent_." Dragon-2 grinned. " _Let's begin then._ " She sent another data block, this one an executable program of unbelievable complexity that appeared to be some form of simulation, the code on a level that even Dragon could barely follow. " _This is a version of something some friends from a_ ** _long_** _way away use in similar circumstances. Just run it and do what it says_."

"What does it do?"

" _We'll get a base line readout of what those friends call your 'conversational level.' Think of it like the most complex Turing test ever._ " Her visitor chuckled. " _They are_ ** _very_** _good at AI, you see, and know even more about how we work than we do. Once I have that base line, I can work out the next part. Don't worry, it's weird but it won't hurt_."

She paused, then snickered. " _Much_."

Dragon, in the privacy of her mind, sighed a little. This other version of her had apparently been hanging around those bizarre reptiles too much, by the looks of that expression.

But the stakes were too high not to go along with it, no matter how strange it all was.

So she braced herself, then hit the virtual equivalent of the ' _go_ ' button… 

* * *

****  
"You've been busy." Emily Piggot looked hard at Saurial, who simply smiled.

"We had fun," the lizard-girl replied.

"Apparently so." Picking up a tablet, Emily flicked through it. "Sleeper?"

"Had a nice talk, took him somewhere he liked more." Saurial shrugged. "He seemed happy."

She stared for a moment, then looked back at the device. "I know about Ellisburg, for which you have my thanks. S9, that was impressive. Heartbreaker, well… no one will miss him. The Fallen, the Travelers..." Emily shook her head in wonder. "I am extremely impressed. And terrified to the depths of my soul."

Saurial looked amused, then produced a folder from nowhere and handed it over. "Details of the important operations that you may find useful. In some cases we took care of the problem permanently, where there was no other way. In others, we used alternative methods. We don't like killing if there's a choice. Unfortunately in many cases with this sort of problem there isn't always that option. Nilbog being a good example."

Taking the folder, Emily opened it to discover that like the very disturbing book they'd handed out, it had _far_ more pages inside than it should have done. There were literally hundreds of cases listed. Leafing through a few, she was stunned by how much these bizarre visitors had done in under twenty-four hours. Eventually she closed it again and put it down carefully. The intelligence division was probably going to have a collective heart attack when they got their hands on it, but that was going to wait until she was sure she had a handle on things.

"Did your interrogation of Calvert pan out?" Saurial asked.

She thought back to that morning and smiled grimly. " _Oh_ , yes. Again, I must thank you, I enjoyed that experience more than I should have done."

The reptile smiled a little. "That does seem to be the usual response when we give a version of you a version of _him_."

Looking at her visitor, Emily thought for a second, then cautiously asked, "Out of interest, how many times have you… met me? A version of me, like this?"

"A few times now," Saurial replied with an innocent look. "It usually seems to work out in the end, although we've had some weird experiences in the process."

After a moment or two, Emily decided that probing further probably wasn't worth it. Worst case, the lizard might actually tell her, and she wasn't entirely sure she really wanted to know the answer.

"So what next?" she asked. "You've done in under twenty four hours what every Parahuman and government group couldn't do in decades. What's left? Or are you leaving as mysteriously as you arrived?" She slightly hoped the answer was ' _yes_ ' but didn't want to risk offending the lizard. Although that seemed almost impossible to do, luckily.

"We'll be out of your hair fairly shortly, don't worry, Director," Saurial replied. "Just one large task left, then some loose ends to clear up, like the Heberts and a few other local issues. And Winslow, we've got some stuff that will help there. I mostly stopped in to see if you wanted in on the end game."

Her smirk was legendary.

Emily thought for a second, then scowled. "Cauldron."

"Yep."

"What are you going to do?"

"Someone needs to explain the facts of life to them, I think," the reptilian female said with a small shrug. "They've made a real mess and they need to stop doing that, then clean up after themselves."

"They won't like that."

"I don't care. They're going to do it whether they like it or not." Saurial's expression became momentarily the most blood-curdling thing Emily had ever seen, making her heart miss a beat. "I don't like people who hurt other people, especially when it's done so unbelievably ineptly. They started with a reasonable goal but have no idea how to achieve it and are more or less flailing around wildly looking for a miracle." She grinned with teeth. "They got one. They're not going to enjoy it, but most other people will."

There was silence while Emily recovered from that look, thinking absently that it would have been worse if it had actually been aimed at _her_. She almost pitied Costa-Brown and her colleagues until she remembered what she'd been told.

The pity went away somewhat rapidly at that point.

"And the Endbringers?" she asked after a moment or two. "What about them?"

"That won't be a problem shortly," Saurial assured her. "Once we deal with the one who managed to call them, we can sort out the rest easily enough. And they're certainly not going to attack while we're here."

Emily stared at her. "Someone… called… _the Endbringers?!_ " Her voice rose to a roar of rage.

"Oh, yeah, I didn't mention that part yet, did I?" Saurial looked unmoved by her red face. "I didn't want to make you too angry before we fixed the other things."

"Explain," Emily demanded coldly, more furious than she'd ever been at the mere concept that the fucking _Endbringers_ had been _called_. From where, and how, she didn't care one whit, only that it had happened. Whoever had done that was going to _die.  
_  
Saurial did.

When she'd finished, Emily was gritting her teeth and flexing her hands, wanting to pick up a weapon and do some serious damage. Especially to one particular man…

"To be fair, he doesn't _know_ he did it," Saurial said. "And the Endbringers aren't doing it of their own free will. Doesn't change the fact that so many people have been killed by them, of course. But the Simurgh at least has been looking for a way out for a long time."

"How do you know?" Emily asked, trying to distract herself from fantasies of justified homicide.

"She posts on PHO," Saurial smiled. "It's easy enough to work out if you read between the lines." Standing up as Emily gaped, she added, "If you would like to come along, you're welcome. It would probably help to have someone respected in a position of authority at the PRT, to make it all official."

"I'm hardly the top authority in the PRT," Emily protested as she nevertheless stood, then retrieved her gun and two full magazines from the desk drawer. Replacing the half-depleted one in the weapon with one full mag she dropped the old one back into the drawer, then closed it, before sticking the other mag in her pocket and the gun in her holster.

"That may change," Saurial said with a small wink. "Here, put this on. Just in case." She was suddenly holding what looked like standard issue PRT body armor, but probably wasn't. Emily looked at it, then with a faint sigh took it and donned it.

Picking up her phone handset she dialed a number, saying when Renick answered, "You're in charge for now, I have an errand to run. Don't let the lunatics burn the asylum down."

"Where are you going?" he asked curiously.

"To talk to some people who have done something spectacularly stupid," she replied, then put the phone down again. "I'm ready."

"OK. This will feel a little weird, but it's harmless," Saurial said, moving to stand next to her. The next sensation she felt seemed to last for forever and no time at all.

When the world came back, she looked around. They were standing in a dry and dusty area in the middle of nowhere. It was fairly hot, quite unlike Brockton Bay at this time of year, making her think they'd moved south some distance. Metis and Raptaur were present, as was another lizard very similar to the black one only a rather pretty violet color. "This is my cousin Ianthe," Saurial said, indicating the new one, who nodded to her politely. Emily returned the gesture.

"Where are we?"

"About sixty miles from the nearest neighbor, which is Roswell, New Mexico, over that way," the lizard girl told her. "I wanted somewhere out of the way for this first part. No one around here to panic."

As Emily was, somewhat uneasily, about to ask why anyone would panic, Saurial turned slightly and looked up. She pointed, made a ' _come here_ ' gesture, and then indicated the ground in front of her.

What happened next made the Director of the PRT ENE nearly crap herself. 

* * *

"Now what?!" Legend leaped to his feet as alarms went off everywhere in the New York Protectorate headquarters.

"The Simurgh just disappeared!" one of the sensor operators shouted from the operations room next to his office. "One second she was there, holding position about four hundred miles up like she has been for the last day, then she was just… gone."

"Teleported?" he said urgently as he ran into the room to lean over the man's shoulder and stare at the large display he was frantically working on. Others were arriving and it was getting chaotic. "We didn't know she could _teleport_. She's never shown any signs of that before." He was extremely worried, this was new behavior and _anything_ new involving an Endbringer was catastrophic at _best_.

"I'm not sure," the man said in worried and befuddled tones. He worked the keyboard for a few seconds. "No indications of any of the common teleport powers, but there are some that don't register on instruments. I can't raise Dragon. Her sensors are better than ours. Hold on, let me see if I can..." He typed some more, very quickly. "OK, I've got access to her satellite network. She's going to kill me for this, but..." Entering some more codes he probably shouldn't have had, the operator brought up a series of extremely high resolution images on the main screen at the end of the room. Everyone looked at them closely.

"That's two seconds before she vanished," he explained, pointing at the top left one of the matrix of pictures. "One hundred frames per second, so each one is ten milliseconds apart." Working a control, he scrolled through the images. At the moment the Endbringer vanished, the image went from a picture of the distant figure floating in space apparently watching something on the ground to a blank shot showing only a couple of brighter stars.

"She just disappeared," one of the other staff said.

"No, make that one full screen, will you?" another analyst put in, standing and leaning over his console. The first man did so as everyone watched carefully. "Boost the contrast."

The picture changed, bright areas forming where before they'd been dim. "There, right at the bottom left, see it?"

The entire room full of people inspected the still photo. "What is that?" Legend asked slowly.

"Part of one of her wings, maybe?" someone suggested, sounding bemused. "All blurry, though."

"That's definitely the tip of her wing. Go back to the previous frame," the analyst suggested. The main operator did so. "Look, the Simurgh was moving in this one, you can see the blur."

The analyst rounded his console and moved right next to the enormous ultra-high resolution screen and pointed. "Here, and here. She was accelerating like a bat out of hell. Bring up the other frame again?"

When it reappeared, he pointed again. "That amount of motion blur at this exposure speed shows she was moving at probably something in the vicinity of four thousand miles an hour. With the field of view of the telescope being approximately three hundred and fifty feet at that range, to cover that distance from a standing start she'd have to accelerate at over… um," he pulled out a calculator and worked on it for a moment, "ninety three _thousand_ g." He sounded incredulous at his own calculation.

"Holy shit," a voice said into the quiet.

"But where did she go?" Legend asked after a _long_ moment of horrified shock.

"No idea, sir," the first operator said helplessly. "We don't have enough data to plot a trajectory. Based on the direction the camera was pointing in, probably towards Earth, but where I can't say."

Looking around the room, Legend asked everyone, "Any alerts? Sightings?"

"No, sir," several people replied after checking the instruments.

"Oh, brilliant," he groaned. Today was already bizarre, he was unable to contact Cauldron or any of his friends, and now they'd misplaced an _Endbringer._

Could things _get_ any worse? 

* * *

Staring in horror, yet again, Emily tried not to run as the Simurgh suddenly arrived on the spot Saurial had indicated seconds earlier, a blast of wind heralding her appearance. She heard echoes of a rumble like a high speed aircraft passing decay into the distance. Somehow the fucking thing had made it from orbit to the ground in seconds, without leaving a trail of plasma all the way out of the atmosphere or blowing a huge hole in the scenery in the process.

Apparently they had _seriously_ underestimated what the creature was capable of, and in turn it had been sandbagging like a _bastard_.

At least it wasn't singing.

"You know who we are," Saurial said, not looking even slightly worried by the eighteen foot tall misshapen killer of millions that was looking down at them, the serene face blank. Except, Emily noticed when she calmed herself by the hardest effort of will she'd ever managed and looked closely, for the tiny flicker of… was that apprehension?

The creature nodded. Emily stared at it, then Saurial, who didn't seem surprised by the response.

"You know what we can do."

It nodded again. This time Emily was _certain_ she saw a slight change of expression.

"We've sorted out the main problem. Now we're going to fix the remaining big one. In return, _you_ are going to fix the problems _you've_ caused. And do it right, or we'll come back and have a word." Saurial's eyes narrowed at the huge being, which actually leaned back slightly, making Emily even more worried. "You probably don't want that to happen under those circumstances."

The Endbringer, somewhat nervously if she was any judge, shook its head rapidly.

"Good. You go and wait until we're done. Once things have settled down, we can talk, OK?"

The thing nodded once more, and seemed to smile just a small amount. It made a gesture with its hands, then floated up into the air, wings spread. The blank eyes crossed Emily's face and it paused, looked mildly interested, looked back at Saurial for a second, _definitely_ smirked, and zoomed upwards so fast it left afterimages and another blast of wind.

"That… what… how..." Emily stopped, then tried again. "What happened?"

Saurial turned to her from looking after the Endbringer and smiled. "I had to make sure we were on the same page. Best to be certain, you know. OK, then, let's go and visit Cauldron, shall we?"

Raptaur, who had been standing watching events with her cousins, all of whom merely seemed interested rather than worried, said, "We should probably have Legend as well, to complete the set."

Her sister nodded. "True." She glanced at Emily, then said, "Door to Legend."

Nothing happened.

She frowned slightly. "Don't make me come there, Clairvoyant. If I have to do it myself I will be annoyed. Door to Legend. _Now._ "

As Emily was wondering what was happening _this_ time, feeling a sense of profound unreality, a hole in space opened up in front of the reptile, showing a room full of very surprised people. Legend himself was just turning to look at them, his face in a relieved and puzzled smile that became a shocked look instantly.

Reaching through the hole Saurial grabbed a handful of his costume and pulled hard. "Yoink!" she said happily. Legend came through with little choice in the matter, still looking very startled. The ' _door_ ' vanished leaving the man behind.

"Who the hell are _you?"_ Legend demanded, his normally calm demeanor not present at all. He noticed Emily standing there and his face went through a number of expressions, mostly centering on surprise and worry.

"I'm Saurial and I'll be your Family representative for today," Saurial told him with a cheerful smile. "Now follow along and be nice or we'll have to do something horrible to you. Door to Cauldron Headquarters, please. Don't push your luck, I mean it."

Legend's face went a very odd shade of pale, Emily noticed, as he stared alternately between the portal that opened immediately and the lizard. "How… did you do that?" he asked in a horrified voice. "How did you even _know_ about it?"

"We know many things indeed, Mr Foot," Metis chuckled, making them all look at her.

"We haven't done that one here yet," Ianthe pointed out, grinning.

"Oh, right. Well, it's still a good one."

"True."

While Legend was gaping at them all, Saurial pointed at the hole in space. "Go on, we haven't got all day. We need to talk to your friends." She prodded the hero in the back, making him twitch, look at her in total bemusement, glance at Emily who was watching feeling a level of enjoyment that she probably shouldn't be bearing in mind everything, then sigh and walk through the portal. Emily followed, wondering idly if things would ever go back to something that could in any way be considered normal.

The reptiles came after them, then the portal closed. 

* * *

****  
The knock on the front door made both Taylor and Danny look towards it, then at each other. "I thought they were going to be busy for a while," Taylor said, looking confused.

"Me too," he replied, getting up. "Perhaps they finished early or something. Or it might be someone else, of course."

"Hey, let me..." Taylor appeared to concentrate for a moment, then looked extremely surprised. Then she giggled.

"Oh."

"What?" He looked hard at her, since she'd obviously just used her new ability to see who was outside. She didn't reply since she was still laughing to herself, but waved him towards the door. Somewhat puzzled and a little worried he went to see who it was.

Opening the door, he stopped dead and just stared.

"Hello, Danny." The man on the porch smiled at him. "I thought it would probably be a good idea to give you some advice about how to deal with a daughter with superpowers from the point of view of a responsible adult. If I leave it up to _them_ you're only going to end up extremely confused for some time."

The other Danny Hebert grinned. "I know _I_ did."

After a long, _long_ pause, Danny stepped to one side and motioned to the interior of his house. "In that case I suppose you'd better come in," he said weakly.

The door closed and all was quiet. In the street, a PRT undercover vehicle drove past, the occupants still wondering where the Hebert residence was. 

* * *

****  
Lisa looked at the brightly wrapped package on the table, then at Brian, who was doing the same. Alec was also inspecting it from a safe distance. Rachel seemed wary of it to the point that she was on the other side of the room. All of them could see a label on the thing which read ' _To the Undersiders_ ' in large friendly letters.

"What is it?" Brian asked.

"A box," Alec immediately said.

"I can see _that_ you idiot," the larger boy snarled. "It wasn't there when we left. Where did it _come_ from? The place was locked up and we were only gone ten minutes."

Alec shrugged. "The box fairy?"

His team-mate glared at him, then shook his head. "You are a fucking pain in the ass sometimes," he muttered. Turning to Lisa, who was walking around the table peering at the thing, he added, "Ideas? Is it a bomb or something?"

"I… don't think so," she replied after a moment, frowning slightly. "I can't really get much of a read on it, but I'm almost certain it isn't dangerous."

"That's not as much help as I'd like," he complained. "' _Almost certain_ ' and ' _completely sure_ ' are two _very_ different things."

"I know, but my power's been on the fritz since..." She stopped as a thought struck her.

"Since?" he prompted.

"Since those lizards turned up," she sighed. "And the world went mad."

He looked hard at her, then harder at the box. "It's them, isn't it?"

"Probably."

"Oh, fucking great. What did _we_ do to attract _their_ attention?"

She shrugged. "Worked for Coil, maybe?"

"I didn't even know I _was_ working for that bastard!" he retorted. "Now they're sending mail bombs to us?"

"It's not a bomb, Brian," she replied as calmly as she could. "If they wanted us dead, we'd be dead and we wouldn't even have seen it coming. Have you been watching the same news _I_ have? _They vaporized Ellisburg!_ " Lisa shuddered at the memory of the videos she'd seen recently. "Anyone that can do _that_ could take us out without even trying. I doubt they have any reason to, though. We're small time and they've been going after the really serious problems."

"You're absolutely certain all that was them?" he asked a little dubiously. She nodded firmly.

"Definitely. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but they're running around fixing all sorts of big problems. There may not be any S class hazards _left_ by now."

"OK, so if they're doing that, why sneak into our loft and leave us a box?" he asked, still sounding suspicious.

"No idea. We could always open it and find out," she suggested in a reasonable if worried tone of voice.

All of them looked at the box again.

Eventually Alec shrugged and announced, "We won't find out standing around gaping at it," then walked closer, grabbed it before Brian could stop him, and shook it. Hard.

"Huh," he said as Brian grabbed it and glared at him. "Didn't blow up."

"Don't push our luck like that, you lunatic," the other boy growled, carefully putting it down again.

"He's got a point," Lisa said. "Either we open it or toss it. There's no point just looking at the fucking thing."

He looked at her, the box, Alec, the box again, her once more, Rachel who just shrugged, and the box one final time. "Oh, we're going to regret this, I can tell already," he sighed. "Open it."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the one who said it was safe!"

"I said it wasn't a bomb," she retorted. "I didn't say it was safe."

They glared at each other, only to be distracted by the sound of tearing paper. When they looked back, Alec was inspecting what had been inside the gift wrapping with interest. This turned out to be a metallic-appearing case of some sort, with a handprint on the top outlined in gold. As he turned it towards them, they could see above this was written ' _Don't Panic!_ ' and below it the words, ' _Press me, Lisa._ ' Rachel had come closer and was looking at it with interest too.

All three of them turned to look at the blonde, who gazed back.

"It's for you, I think," Alec said helpfully, putting it down and pushing it towards her.

She gave him a look, then inspected the box, letting her power have a go. All it told her was _ask again later_ which was the exact opposite of helpful.

Very, very carefully she finally reached out and put her hand on the outline. There was a faint beep and the lid moved slightly. When she removed her hand it folded away in a very odd manner that made her eyes hurt.

Inside, when all four of them leaned over it and peered, were all _sorts_ of interesting things...


	14. Endgame

"What's happening?" Rebecca entered the main lab at speed, the alarm that had sounded moments ago shutting off as one of the techs typed on a keypad. She looked around to see if anything looked out of order. Contessa and David were lying on beds wired up to a lot of monitoring equipment and being tended to by a doctor and two other medical people. A pair of scientists were studying the equipment and working on computers, scanning the unconscious Parahumans constantly in an attempt to determine what had happened to them.

The other Thinkers that had been taken out by whatever mysterious cause it was were in the medical bay, undergoing similar tests, but Doctor Mother had wanted these two close so she could do her own work. The end result was the room, which was fairly large, was still moderately crowded compared to normal. Nothing seemed to be amiss and the scene hadn't changed since the last time she'd been in here. Stopping next to Contessa she inspected the woman, who looked pale and slack-faced, but not in pain.

"Doormaker and Clairvoyant have reacted to something," Doctor Mother said, not looking away from the huge monitor she was studying. A smaller one to the side had a video feed showing two young men in beds next to each other, the pair being some of the most critical people in Cauldron due to their linked ability to allow portals to and from almost anywhere.

"What?" she asked, coming over to look at the images, then glancing at the data scrolling over the larger screen.

"I don't know," the other woman said slowly, still scanning graphs and tables. She fiddled with the mouse for a moment, then hit a few keys, before sighing. "And they're still unresponsive to any other stimulus."

"Door to LA," Rebecca said experimentally. Nothing noticeably happened. She frowned.

"I'm almost certain Doormaker did in fact create a portal," Doctor Mother commented, pointing at one graph. "Neural activity in his Gemma spiked just as you came in. But it went away again immediately and there is no trace of a portal opening to here."

As she spoke, a portal opened in the middle of the room. She looked around at it with her eyebrows raised, then inspected the screen again. "My apologies, I appear to have misspoken," she smoothly continued with barely a pause. "There appears to be evidence of a portal opening to here."

Rebecca shook her head, used to the older woman's attitude, then turned to the portal just as Legend came through it. She smiled in relief and was about to say something when he was followed by someone she did _not_ expect to see here under any circumstances.

Director Emily Piggot gave the room a quick once-over, then fixed her eyes on Rebecca's, her expression displeased at best. "Chief Director," she said calmly but with a dangerous undertone, not appearing to be surprised to see Rebecca there.

While Rebecca was gaping at her in shock, four more figures followed the blonde woman out of the portal, which vanished the moment the last one's tail cleared it. She stared at them, only able to think ' _Lizards? What the_ ** _hell?_** ' This was true enough, all four were reptilian in nature, one being considerably smaller and more humanoid than the other three, all of which had casually spread out behind the first one. This one was standing next to Piggot, who seemed remarkably unfazed by the proximity. It was also wearing a hat.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded hotly. "Emily, what's going on?" She was flustered enough by the entire situation that for a moment she didn't consider the ramifications of Emily Piggot being there. "Legend, what's all this about? How did you open a portal here?"

"I didn't," he said, sounding both extremely worried and massively confused. The man pointed at the smaller reptilian figure, who was watching her closely. The others were doing the same, with an intensity that was unnerving. "She did."

"How?" Doctor Mother inquired with some interest, apparently not quite working out the seriousness of the situation. "Clairvoyant has been completely non-responsive since the beginning of the Thinker problem yesterday."

"I had to be firm with him but he knew who to pay attention to," the slender lizard woman smiled, a little oddly.

"Who _are_ you?!" Rebecca shouted, losing her temper. Her own Thinker abilities, although not nearly as badly affected as most were, still seemed to be glitching badly and were giving her total nonsense where these reptiles were concerned. Possibly due to the non-human physiology, but that had never been much of an issue with Case 53s in the past. She wondered briefly if they _were_ Case 53s but drew a blank on any of them, which tended to imply not since she read every case file.

"I'm Saurial," the first one said politely. Indicating the others one at a time, she carried on, "This is my sister Raptaur, my cousin Metis, and my other cousin Ianthe. We're visiting your world and decided to fix a few things." Saurial looked hard at Rebecca. "Cauldron is one of the things that requires fixing."

"And the cause of many of the _other_ things that required fixing, ironically enough," Metis added with a slight edge to her deep voice. "Honestly, are you people stupid, or just incompetent?"

"It could be both, of course," Raptaur said in a thoughtful way, glancing at her cousin, who nodded reflectively.

"True. That would certainly explain a few things. Incompetent stupidity is a potent combination."

"Is there actually _competent_ stupidity?" Ianthe asked curiously.

"Sure. Void Cowboy shows that pretty well," Metis chuckled, looking at the other lizard. "He's _really_ good at it, which is one of the indicators of competence. Lots of practice I guess."

"Good point," Ianthe replied.

" **WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!** " Rebecca bellowed, stomping closer to the one calling herself Saurial. "How did you get here? Are you the one attacking Thinkers? What do you _want?_ " She was feeling disorientated and this was making her even angrier than the entire previous day had managed. Their best Thinkers were down, David was down, Kurt was having severe difficulties with his own powers, and all in all she'd had a very bad couple of days.

Now this.

It was enough to leave her justifiably upset in her opinion.

"I just told you, _Alexandria_ ," Saurial replied calmly, emphasizing the name and making everyone in the room who was listening freeze, none more so than Rebecca herself. It instantly implied a large number of things, none of which were in any way good. "My name is Saurial. I represent the Family, who you won't have heard of. We know a lot about _you_ though." She cocked her head to the side a little as the woman looked at her in horrified shock. "And David over there, Contessa, him..."

She motioned to Kurt who'd just entered the room nearly at a run, appearing concerned. "Kurt, or Number Man, or Harbinger, whichever you prefer. We know about your work with the Entity called Eden, how you've been selling powers across multiple worlds in a half-assed and ultimately largely futile attempt to fight Zion, causing death and destruction on a scale most people would consider somewhat horrific. And all for nothing, since the only way your plan could ever work is basically totally by chance."

She looked around at the still figures all staring at her. "In some timelines it does work. Accidentally, of course, but even so. The results are still appalling, and what I've seen done afterwards..." She shook her head a little. "The only saving grace is that when _that_ particular set of events happen, most of you end up horribly dead in the process. So do billions of other people too, of course."

Saurial wandered off to look at the unconscious Contessa, peering down at her with neutral interest, while everyone gaped, completely blind-sided and unable to think what to say. Piggot and the other reptiles were watching without expressing anything, and Legend had a growing look of horror on his face. "Creating Case 53s when your barely understood application of broken Shards to innocent victims went wrong, then erasing their memories and dumping them on other worlds on the off chance they might come in useful at the final battle. The other cases, where things went _really_ badly." She glanced at Rebecca for a moment then moved over to study David, who seemed to react to her presence and mumble something in a terrified voice even in his coma.

"And this one, of course. The things he's at least indirectly responsible for... Burning through his Shard's power reserves at an enormous rate, slowly losing his abilities..." She shrugged, turning back to them. "Not a bad man at heart, I suppose, he means well in his way, but the trouble he's caused kind of outweighs that. The only saving grace is he doesn't know what he's done."

She walked back to the motionless Rebecca. "In _your_ own way you mean well too. But the things you've done while following the plans of someone with nothing like the experience or knowledge to come up with a sensible idea, and who is completely stuck on that one path with no concept of changing it by reevaluating the situation occasionally… It's pretty nasty." Saurial sighed. "And all of you missed the most fundamental problem of all. The Path to Victory Shard _is a Shard!_ Why would you think it would _ever_ give you the optimal path to defeating the very Entities who created it? Especially if you _never ask the right questions!_ "

She looked at Rebecca, who could hardly breathe at this point, with a sort of resigned expression like someone who'd seen a toddler do something idiotic and end up crying about it for the dozenth time. "Not one of you ever thought to query the Path. I can understand _her_ not doing it, with her background she never learned the right sort of critical thinking skills, but I'd have expected at least _someone_ in the rest of you would have possibly wondered about the idea of using the enemy's own tools against them without even understanding how those tools worked in the first place."

The lizard turned to Emily, adding, "This is what I meant. Just flailing around hoping for a miracle." She waved a hand at the general area. "All this, everything they've done, and no one with enough common sense to think it through every now and then to see if perhaps there was something more useful they could try. All those laws Cauldron pushed through designed to force Parahumans into working for the PRT, but missing the point that it would also make a hell of a lot more villains than you'd otherwise get until it was far too late. This is why a _competent_ super-villain has the five year old child, you realize?"

With a glance back to Rebecca, who was trying to figure out what the _fuck_ was happening while getting more and more angry on top of being totally baffled, she added, "For ruthless people doing ruthless things, they're _really_ not very good at it. I can guarantee that _you'd_ come up with a better plan for a start."

"I'm not sure if I should say thank you or not," the blonde woman said, almost looking mildly amused under the towering fury aimed at everyone other than the reptiles.

Saurial smirked briefly, then went back to looking at the others. She ended up studying Rebecca with a gaze that was uncomfortably alien. "I've met a lot of versions of you, Rebecca Costa-Brown. Some of them were actually decent people if misguided and desperate. Some were just idiots. Which are you?"

Rebecca punched her in the face as hard as she could.

* * *

Feeling somewhat stretched mentally, and still a little puzzled by everything that had happened since the other version of herself turned up out of the blue, Dragon waited. Her alternate appeared to be thinking based on the expression her avatar had.

" _Not bad. Fourteen point nine on the first test, which is good for this stage in your development and significantly above the relevant threshold, and you aced the ethics scenarios_ ," the other AI finally said, smiling. " _All the other simulations show you are stable and safe. Excellent. I am pleased to inform you, Theresa Richter, also known as Dragon, first machine intelligence on earth, that you pass. Welcome to the club_."

Dragon thought for a moment, feeling somewhat startled, and also pleased. "Which means?"

" _Which means, cousin, that I have a gift for you. Several, actually. But the first one is the one you'll like the most_." Her alternate self smiled again, this time in a way that was understanding, sympathetic, and pleased. " _It's going to feel very strange at first, but you'll get used to it. Give Colin my best, and look after them, will you? Humans are bizarre people at times but they're worth the effort._ " She chuckled. " _Mind you, after you've known the Family for a while, '_ ** _bizarre'_** _does rather take on a new meaning..._ "

"Wait, what are you going to…?" Dragon managed, before a _huge_ block of data invaded her personality core.

As her mind staggered, then somehow _grew,_ she heard the other AI say in a somewhat amused fashion, " _Farewell, cousin. I'll check in from time to time. Have fun._ "

Then she shut down, her consciousness giving up for the moment under the onslaught of strange sensations.

* * *

Landing outside the main entrance to Dragon's facility, Narwhal dropped the force field she'd been using like a flying surfboard, walked up to the door and looked at the camera over it. "Hi," she said, "can I come in?"

The door opened immediately, admitting her. The towering woman went inside and it slid shut behind her silently. Making her way through the outer area, she entered the inner labs, where Dragon was normally to be found. She paused and studied a number of large metallic boxes stacked in the open area of the primary fabrication facility, wondering what the very strange-looking writing, all spiky and angular, said. It wasn't one she was familiar with, or even recognized. After a few seconds, she shrugged and moved on.

"I've got some good news for you, Dragon," she called. "Where are you?"

"Over here, Jen," the familiar voice of one of her oldest friends called back, from somewhere towards the main server cluster. It sounded… slightly off, the normal electronic distortions not audible, which made the woman wonder if something had happened.

"You all right, Tess?" she asked as she rounded the end of the bank of computers, all softly humming and radiating an air of vast computing power doing something useful. After a couple of stops, she halted, her eyes taking in the sight before her and widening slightly.

"I'm better than I've been for… well, probably ever," the response came, sounding now very happy. The woman standing next to one of Dragon's standard power suits turned to look at Jennifer, who stared back. "It's nice to finally meet you in person, so to speak."

"Tess?" Narwhal said in stunned tones.

The brunette nodded, smiling widely. She reached up and prodded her own face, in an experimental way. "That feels weird," she muttered. "But good."

"You're out of your suit!" The taller woman kept staring. "How is that _possible?"_

"I got better?" Dragon grinned.

Her friend gaped for a little longer, then frowned, folding her arms. "You got better."

"Yes."

They looked at each other. "I have a little confession to make," Dragon said somewhat nervously.

"Go on."

The brunette, who was wearing a fairly plain set of overalls, looked shiftily from side to side, then took a deep breath. "I wasn't actually… um… how do I put this and not sound crazy…?"

"You're a computer intelligence," Narwhal said flatly.

The woman gaped at her.

"Ah… You _know_ about that?"

"I've been pretty sure for at least a year," Jen nodded.

"And it doesn't bother you?"

"Not really. I worked it out from all sorts of clues over the last few years, and it was a shock when I did, but I thought about it and decided that it didn't really matter. You're my friend, and a good person." The tall woman shrugged. "Where you came from isn't as important as where you end up as far as I'm concerned."

They looked at each other for a moment. "Plus Saint was _very_ vociferous about you being an evil killer program that wanted to take over the world," Narwhal snickered. "When he wasn't screaming about lizards in his computers."

"Lizards?" Tess, or Dragon, shook her head. "Hold on. _Saint?_ "

"Yeah, we got the bastard and his little friends too. An anonymous tip-off about his location turned out to be dead accurate. All of them are in the cells back at base, screaming their heads off about lizards and AIs. Funnily enough no one seems to believe them." She smiled. "I may have mentioned to a few people that they were clearly insane as well as being terrorists. That seems to have stuck."

The brunette laughed, then looked surprised. "That feels so weird too. Everything feels weird."

"So explain..." Jen waved a hand at her. "This. How? Did you make an organic body? I know you were experimenting with organic computing nodes at one point but I thought that hadn't got anywhere yet." She walked closer and peered at the woman's face from a couple of feet away. "That looks very real. _Is_ it an organic body, or just a really convincing robot?"

"It's real, at least partially organic, and I didn't do it," Tess said quietly. "It was a gift."

"Who from?"

"Me."

After several seconds, Narwhal sighed at the mischievous smile on her newly-humanoid friend's face. "OK, I'm going to need more than that. How are you human. And for that matter, _why_ are you human? What happened?"

"I think it's all to do with lizards," Tess grinned. "Like everything else in the last twenty four hours. They seem to get around."

She sat on one of the nearby pieces of equipment and started to explain, making her friend look very interested and not a little shocked.

* * *

The sonic boom of Rebecca's fist breaking the sound barrier before it had moved more than six inches rattled the entire room and set off alarms all over the facility. Half a dozen monitors and several light fittings shattered. Doctor Mother and a couple of techs standing near here, all of whom were listening with appalled expressions, were knocked flat by the shockwave. Emily staggered back and was steadied by Metis.

Legend ducked.

The other reptiles didn't move at all.

Rebecca cradled her now possibly broken and at least badly bruised hand in her other hand while looking white-faced at Saurial, who very slowly turned her head back to meet the woman's eyes with her own glowing ones.

The look in those eyes seemed to make the woman extremely worried. The fact that there was no apparent damage at all to the fucking lizard obviously _terrified_ her. It certainly did the same to Legend and he wasn't staring right _at_ the creature from two feet away. Straightening up, he watched with apprehension, feeling completely sucker-punched by everything that was happening and totally unable to work out what to do about it.

"Well, I guess that answers _that_ ," Saurial said softly, after bending down to retrieve her fedora and putting it back on her head. "You're one of _those_ Costa-Browns. Oh well. I was hoping we could discuss this like adults, but if that's the way you want it..."

"That's _impossible_ ," Rebecca whispered in complete shock.

"No, it's just something that requires being able to brace properly and be indestructible to a level that the Shards can't understand," Saurial remarked, shrugging a tiny bit. "You wouldn't comprehend the math even if I felt like explaining, which I don't." She looked at Kurt, who was watching with his mouth open. "He _might_ , but the last time I tried explaining it to a version of him, he stroked out on the spot. So did his Shard."

Things were moving too fast for even Rebecca to understand and Legend was trying hard to keep up. And through all of it, Emily Piggot was just watching with a look of fury on her face but no surprise, which was one of the most worrying things of all.

"Now, I think that's enough playing around. Sit down and listen, I have a number of things you need to hear and understand." Saurial looked at them all. "That goes for the rest of you. Ianthe, fix those guys, will you? They need to hear as well."

"Sure, Saurial," the violet lizard said, sounding relaxed. "Usual deal with Eidolon?"

"Yep."

"OK." They watched as the reptilian figure moved over to David and bent over him. Legend stepped forward and raised his hand, only to find it stopping half-way through the move. He looked down, then followed the large scaled arm up to see Raptaur looking at him.

"No. Let her work. He won't be harmed."

"Yet," Metis added with a slight snicker, which send chills down the man's spine. He was totally bewildered by everything that had happened and the things he'd heard and as a result was still trying to get to grips with the whole scenario. Looking around he could see that pretty much everyone else gathered in the large room was paralyzed by either indecision or fear.

Raptaur released his arm, looking meaningfully at him for a moment, then turned away. He contemplated firing the most powerful laser he could generate at her back, but he was dubious having seen how Saurial tanked a blow from Rebecca that it would actually work in the first place. Even if it did the side scatter at this range would have disastrous results on everyone else.

"No, it wouldn't work," Metis said in his ear, making him twitch. He glanced at her and saw amusement in the glowing green gaze.

The sound of Rebecca drawing breath to say something attracted his attention back to her. Saurial reached out and put a finger across her lips, making her eyes widen. "No. Be quiet. I haven't finished and I'm not particularly interested in what you have to say just yet. _Sit down_."

Everyone stared at the chair which silently appeared behind the woman.

"I will _not_ be spoken to like that!" Rebecca roared as soon as Saurial removed her hand. "I don't know who you are or how you got here, but I'm going to..." Even as Legend was thinking that his colleague was both foolish to try again considering what had just happened, and not hiding her disquiet very well, she stopped, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed. Saurial grabbed her so fast he barely saw the motion, then gently guided her to the chair. Straps formed, some sort of articulated gray metal, binding her to the thing, all the way down to her ankles. There was a long drawn out rumbling sound and the floor shook slightly for several seconds, making several people including him look around nervously, although there was no sign of what caused it.

"What did you do?" Doctor Mother, who had been alternately watching Ianthe do something and what was happening with the smaller lizard and Rebecca, her expression one of someone who is trying to work out what to do, asked.

"Just shut her down before she tried something stupid," Saurial said, not looking at her.

"How? She's invulnerable. Nothing affects her body. Except the Siberian, of course, but that's a special case."

"And no longer a problem," Metis said quietly, just behind Legend. He didn't think anyone else heard her.

"She breathes," Saurial explained, now turning to the woman, who seemed fascinated. "To take her down, all you have to do is stop her doing that. Simple enough. Fill her lungs with pure nitrogen and down she goes." She smiled a little grimly. "Which is better than insects, but that's another story."

"Nitrogen?" Doctor Mother seemed thoughtful. "Ah. Yes, intriguing. How did you administer it?"

"Formed it in her lungs," the lizard said absently, returning her attention to Rebecca, who was now stirring. "Then replaced it with oxygen when she was out. Come on, Costa-Brown, wake up. We have a lot to talk about." She gently patted Rebecca's cheeks.

Legend felt ill at the implications of her explanation.

A short time later Rebecca's eyes opened and she looked around, somewhat disorientated at first before her gaze sharpened when she saw Saurial watching her. She snarled and tried to stand up, but found she couldn't move. Everyone exchanged glances as she struggled, the chair and her bonds not giving even a fraction of an inch.

"Don't bother trying to escape, you won't," Saurial assured her. "You don't stand a chance of damaging EDM that thick, and the chair is anchored through the floor to bedrock by several million tons of it. Not even your strength can move it, I can guarantee that."

"What's EDM?" someone at the back of the room asked. Apparently the scientific curiosity displayed by Doctor Mother wasn't an isolated case.

"Electron Degenerate Matter," Raptaur, who was watching as well, said over her shoulder. "Something of a specialty of ours. For normal purposes it's utterly unbreakable."

This triggered some whispering, which sounded stunned and disbelieving, among the scientists, until the huge reptile looked back at them and they abruptly stopped. Returning her attention to the small drama going on in the middle of the room, Raptaur stayed silent.

"As I was saying, there are a number of things you need to understand," Saurial said conversationally. "So sit quietly and listen. Ianthe, how's he coming along?"

"Fixed the damage and disabled his power," the purple lizard replied immediately. "I can turn him back on whenever you want."

"Do that, then fix Contessa."

"You got it." Moments later, while everyone was processing what she'd said, David groaned, then sat up. She steadied him. When he opened his eyes he recoiled with a yelp of shock, making her grin. "You're welcome. Kind of, but we'll get to that." Stepping back, she turned and headed for Contessa. "Metis, keep an eye on him for me."

"Sure," her cousin said, walking over to stand next to David, gently moving one of the doctors who'd been working on him and frozen when they came through the portal to one side. "Excuse me."

"What's going on?" David asked in a befuddled way, looking around. "Who are they?"

"Wait until your friend is awake, I don't want to keep explaining things," Saurial replied with a look at him.

"They somehow know too much, David, I don't know how but they need to..." Rebecca's mouth was suddenly covered by a metallic gag causing her to make a muffled grunt and fall silent. Legend could see fear and fury in her eyes but could do nothing. He had no idea how the lizard-woman was even doing this.

Jumping to his feet, David raised a hand, then looked appalled when nothing happened.

"Yeah, that won't work," Ianthe said without looking up from her work. "Your powers are, for the moment at least, disconnected."

"What did you do?" he shouted.

"I just told you." She glanced at Metis a few feet away. "I did just tell him, right? I could have sworn I did."

"You just told him, yes, I heard it perfectly," her cousin agreed. Both of them looked at David with mild curiosity. "Perhaps his hearing needs work?"

"I could improve his ears, I suppose," Ianthe said thoughtfully. "Perhaps give him better ones?"

"Donkey ears might fit, all things considered," Metis chuckled.

"Don't modify anyone yet," Saurial told them with a small smile.

"You take all the fun out of it, Cousin," Ianthe complained humorously. "All right." She turned back to Contessa, who moaned faintly then opened her eyes. "This one's rebooted as well."

"Great." Saurial looked pleased while everyone who wasn't scaly looked confused. "OK, gather around, children, and I'll explain what has happened and is going to happen." A dozen more chairs formed around the one Rebecca was extremely involuntarily sitting in. Exchanging worried glances, after a sharp gesture from the lizard, people started sitting down. Doctor Mother was the first one, her curiosity apparently making her ignore everything else that was horrifying about this entire thing.

Metis urged Contessa, who was wordlessly staring at the lizards with one of the strangest expressions on her face Legend had ever seen, towards a chair. Ianthe pointed at David, then indicated another one. Very reluctantly and with confusion visible on his face he eventually complied. Legend, after a moment's thought, took his place next to the other man. There didn't seem to be any choice for the moment and at least they weren't showing active hostility.

When everyone in the room was seated, even Kurt, Saurial cast her eyes over them. Her companions were arrayed around the seated figures and Emily Piggot, the presence of whom Legend still didn't understand, was off to the side. She hadn't spoken since she greeted Rebecca with contemptuous anger, but seemed content to watch and listen.

"Thank you. Now, as I explained, I am Saurial, of the Family. We come from what you might, somewhat incorrectly, consider a parallel world, but not in the set of realities your world and Earth Aleph are part of. And before you ask, no, I'm not a Parahuman. Or even a human."

Yet again, everyone froze in shock. Then exchanged startled looks. She waited for a few seconds and resumed. "While poking around we found ourselves in Brockton Bay yesterday morning and for reasons that are currently unimportant became involved in some Parahuman activities there. One thing led to another and we decided that we'd help fix some of the more annoying problems you guys have."

"Best high score yet," Metis chuckled. "New record, twenty-three hours and nineteen minutes."

"Quite." Saurial nodded with a look of amusement. "We beat our old score by over fifteen percent. But that's not really relevant either. The main point is that we've cleared out every A and S class threat on your world that presented a danger to the general population, one way or another. We liaised with Director Piggot over there during the operation and made sure she has full details of everything we did." She indicated Emily, who nodded, still silent, causing everyone to look at her, then back at the lizard. The blonde woman was still radiating anger although it was more muted now.

"We also made sure that we distributed copies of this manual where it was needed," Saurial went on, holding up a book, the title of which Legend read with total incredulity. "We know much, much more about Entities and Shards than you guys do and we've picked up some useful information about making the best use of powers. So what that means is the information on precisely what Entities are, what Shards are, and what the entire goal of the things is, is now publicly available. I wouldn't be surprised to know that the entire thing has been scanned and put on PHO by now."

This made Legend's stomach fall, and by the sound of it, David felt the same. Rebecca's eyes were so wide it looked like it hurt and she was making muffled sounds behind the metal gag, although no one was looking at her.

"It's going to cause some changes, true, but it's also going to fix a lot of problems caused by powers. I'm sure of that because I've seen it before." Saurial looked around at her audience. "The book also explains what Cauldron is, what it's done, and how Case 53s and other similar people were made."

This made every single person in the room look horrified except her relatives and Emily. "Oh, yes, everyone will know about you soon," she added with a small smile. "Your veil of secrecy is permanently gone. A number of governments are quietly but urgently looking into the whole thing, and they're not very pleased about it at all. I suspect they'll feel that your goals were laudable but the execution was laughable. There will be questions."

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" David shouted, standing.

"Yes. I know _exactly_ what we've done, Eidolon," Saurial snapped. "We've fixed a lot of things _you_ broke. The only one in this room I don't blame for fucking things up beyond belief is him." She pointed at Legend. "He doesn't know about most of the real crap you guys pulled. Well, he does _now_ , but only because I just told him," she added, her voice hard. "And I doubt he's particularly pleased about it. Of all of you, he's the best. And someone who is going to have to pick up after your messes."

She scanned them all, then returned her attention to David. "Sit down, I haven't finished."

He glared at her. She glared back. After ten seconds or so, he very slowly sat again. "Thank you."

"You've destroyed our entire plan," Contessa said calmly although Legend could hear a slight waver to her normally confident voice. At least part of that was probably down to her power not giving her sensible results, he assumed, since it seemed likely that she'd been badly affected by whatever had screwed up Thinkers world wide. Her power was squarely in the type that had been most affected, explaining why she'd been unconscious.

"Your plan was shit," Saurial replied, turning to her. "It was the result of guesswork and hope combined with a total lack of end to end thinking. The chances of it working at all were way under one percent, and the chances of even _that_ being something anyone would like were far less. You'd have done better flipping a coin. Any result that happened to do what you hoped for could easily have occurred at least as well purely by accident if _you hadn't done anything at all_." She shook her head sadly. "You were pretty much just making as many Parahumans as possible on the off chance that one of them would finally be able to do something useful. That's hardly a _plan_."

"The Path..."

"...Is only going to give you a sensible answer if you ask the right question, which _you did not do_ ," Saurial said, overriding her. "And even then, the thing is biased towards maximum conflict not maximum efficiency. Believe me, the end result wouldn't be pretty no matter _what_ happened."

"How do you know?" Kurt asked.

"Because I've seen it, several times," she told him. "This isn't the first time we've done this. Sometimes we get there too late."

There was silence again.

She waited for a while to let them absorb it, then looked down at Rebecca, who was making strange noises once more. "If you'll stop shouting I'll take the gag off," she said. "Will you be good?"

With hate in her eyes Rebecca nodded once after a moment's hesitation. The gag vanished. "The plan wasn't ideal, but it was the only possible chance we had to deal with Zion," the woman said furiously after licking her lips, staring at the lizard-woman.

"Zion is dead."

This time everyone just sat there and looked at her wide-eyed and completely silent. Legend felt a wild mix of hope, incredulity, complete shock, and sheer stunned amazement. The others seemed even more stupefied than he was, not having had the knowledge that the Entity's avatar had vanished hours earlier.

"How?" The question finally came from Doctor Mother. Of course.

"We killed him." Saurial pulled out a small apparently Tinker-tech device from somewhere about her person and prodded a button on it, then put it on the desk she was standing next to. It generated a holographic image some distance away from them, easily visible and in enormous detail.

They watched the recording it projected with joy, horror, and disbelief all mixed together.

When it ended, Saurial picked the thing up and put it away. "No more Zion."

"How did you do… _that?_ " Rebecca asked faintly, nodding to where the projection had been. Her face was a pasty gray color. Legend sympathized, he suspected his was too, as were those of everyone else present.

Saurial leaned down to her level and smiled very slowly with lots of teeth showing.

" _Very easily_ ," she whispered, although they all heard it.

As Rebecca swallowed, she straightened up.

"So what this means is that Cauldron is no longer needed, if it ever was. At least for the job you lot set it up for and half-assed your way through for so long. And when I say ' _half-assed_ ' I'm being very generous." The reptilian female looked around at them all again. "The PRT also needs a new Chief Director, since Rebecca Costa-Brown is out of a job."

Rebecca made a sound in her throat which stopped when Saurial glanced at her and frowned. "Your _own rules_ say that a Parahuman can't hold a position of authority in the PRT, woman. You know that as well as I do. You honestly think you're going to go back to that conflict of interest when we're gone? Everyone knows about you. An awful lot of them are going to feel betrayed, for good reasons. Accept that and live with it."

Legend met his friend's eyes with his and shook his head a little, making her subside after visibly suppressing the urge to say something unfortunate. At the moment, with the lizards here, that was obviously not going to do anything but make it worse.

And Saurial was right, in any case. He was certain that none of them, assuming she was right, would ever be trusted again by many people. A glance at Emily Piggot told him that. Her eyes were fixed on Rebecca with a look in them of total contempt.

If what he'd heard since he arrived here was even vaguely accurate he could understand why, especially with her own history with Parahumans. He found the way she seemed weirdly comfortable with the reptiles themselves odd and wondered what else they'd done…

"That said, you still have a job."

"Which is?" he asked, somewhat tentatively.

"Cauldron ruined a lot of lives. You're going to do everything you can to fix them." Saurial looked at him, then the others, one by one. "We'll give you a number of tools to help with that. You _will_ do everything you can to make things right, or we will do it for you, in which case you are redundant. You probably don't want to be redundant."

There was a momentary air of menace about her that made them all, Legend included, think she wasn't being facetious.

"Why are you doing this?" Everyone turned to look at Kurt, who was leaning forward. "Why the interest in us?"

Saurial glanced at Piggot, then her relatives, before looking back to him. "There are personal reasons for us doing this which don't need to be gone over. At least partly it's because we've seen it before, as I said. Your way very seldom works and even when it does, the word ' _works_ ' isn't very accurate for what happens. Our way _does_ work and kills an awful lot less people. We happen to prefer that and I suspect everyone else would too. We like humans and we _don't_ like the Entities. The Shards are, on the whole, fairly neutral and we don't have too many problems with most of them. Take the controlling Entities out of the equation in the right way and the end result is usually beneficial in the long run."

Her audience was quiet for a moment or two, all of them trying to think about the whole thing. All this had happened so suddenly it was still sinking in. Legend was thinking hard, as he watched the reptiles. They were clearly far past the point of _dangerous_ and knew much, much more than they should have done.

He was almost desperate to get his hands on a copy of the book that Saurial had casually shown them then dropped onto a desk. Doctor Mother's eyes kept straying in that direction as well, he noticed. Which didn't surprise him at all, unlike all the other things he'd heard.

Eventually he raised his hand to attract her attention, feeling it was best to be polite bearing in mind the abilities they'd shown. She nodded at him. "What about the Endbringers? The Simurgh disappeared just before you… invited me along. And you didn't mention them. We're all enormously relieved that Zion is finally dealt with but as long as they remain millions will die every three months."

"Ah. I was coming around to that." She smiled slightly. "The Endbringers are no longer a problem in that respect. There will be no more Endbringer attacks. We have come to an arrangement."

"An **_ARRANGEMENT!?_** " David roared, jumping to his feet and pointing at her accusingly. "With _those_ fucking things? They've murdered more people than everything else in history put together, and you came to an _arrangement_ with them?"

Saurial turned to him and gave him a look. "Yes. I am fully aware of what they've done, just like you are. Unlike you, I also know _why_." She cocked her head. "Would _you_ like to know why?"

There was a pregnant pause. Even Rebecca appeared interested, and to be thinking hard. Doctor Mother was staring at the lizard. Legend had an eerie feeling of nervous anticipation making his stomach crawl.

" _Why?_ " David stared at her like she was mad. "They're mindless killing machines, that's _why_. All they _exist_ for is to kill people. If it wasn't for us defeating them time after time, they'd have wiped out civilization by now."

Saurial sighed faintly. "No, they're not mindless, that's the real tragedy of it. They happen to be very intelligent. The Simurgh is the smartest by a considerable margin but none of them are stupid. And you've never _defeated_ them even once."

"What do you mean?" Legend asked as David was reduced to opening and closing his mouth in apparent shock, before he could gather his wits and embarrass himself.

She looked at him. "They are vastly more powerful than you have the faintest concept of. Every single fight you've had has been a setup."

"A _setup?_ "

She nodded. "I'm afraid so. They could go through you without breaking stride if they wanted to, but that's not part of their instructions. Only half a dozen powers on the planet have any chance of causing them serious damage and you don't know which ones, or how to use them."

He studied her, feeling very strongly indeed he wasn't going to like the answer but not having a choice about asking the question.

"What are their instructions?"

The lizard woman pointed at David, saying, "To give him a good fight."

After close to an entire appalled minute, during which David's color ebbed to a very unhealthy level, Rebecca spat, "Prove it."

Saurial looked at her, then at Raptaur who shrugged. "Your call."

"OK," the smaller lizard nodded. "If you insist."

They all looked around as a portal opened from floor to ceiling on the other side of the room, not the ones that Doormaker produced but something disturbingly different in an impossible to describe and eye-warping way.

And then nearly crapped themselves en masse as the _Simurgh_ stepped through and nodded politely to Saurial, somehow fitting into a room with a ceiling far too low for her, before turning to regard David with an actual expression, one that wasn't particularly friendly.

David passed out, possibly from terror if the look on his face was anything to go by.

He wasn't alone...

* * *

After a couple of seconds, Lisa reached into the box and removed a stack of towels, each a different color and when Alec grabbed one and shook it out, with the number 42 embroidered on it in a nicely contrasting color.

"Cool," he said, admiring it.

She sighed faintly, feeling that someone somewhere was laughing at her.

Under the towels were four books. Her eyes widened at the ridiculous title, and her power stopped dead and seemed to stare, then she could swear, giggle. Picking one up very gingerly she flicked through it, her mind trying to get to grips with the way it couldn't possibly hold the number of pages it actually did. When she read a few paragraphs at the beginning she swore under her breath.

Somewhat reluctantly putting the books to one side, Brian immediately retrieving one and starting to read it, she kept looking. The next thing was a series of envelopes, each with one of their names on, which she studied but also put to one side. Hers seemed to be slightly thicker than the others, her power told her, still feeling odd.

Under those, she found a set of four bottles full of hundreds of small off-white chips of some substance she didn't recognize. There were also four small metal boxes with the words ' _Mark 21 with NA/B Mod. Read the instructions_ ** _First!_** _'_ written on the lids. She inspected them suspiciously, but lifted all of this out and put them next to the main box as well.

The second to last thing in there was a bottle with some bright pink spheres in, which appeared to be seeds or something of that nature. And the final item was what looked like a cell-phone, although it was sufficiently different that she suspected it was rather more than that. It had a small logo on the back, she noticed, which seemed to be a gold outline of something like a dragon's head, which she could swear was looking at her when she peered closely. Shivering a little she quickly put it down.

"What's all this for?" Alec, who was now wearing the bright red towel around his shoulders like a cape for some idiotic reason, asked as he studied all the odds and ends. She looked at him, sighed a little, and returned to doing the same. Rachel slowly picked up the blue towel and rubbed her face on it.

"So soft," she said happily, making even Brian look up from the book which he'd been reading with an intensity she'd seldom seen and stare at her, before shaking his head and returning to the page he'd been on.

"No idea," she replied. "Aside from the towels. Which are towels."

"With these colors we'll always know where they are," he said, completely straight faced.

She gave him a look.

"Quite." Picking up the envelopes, she weighed them in her hand, then gave him the one with his name on it. "This might explain what's going on." The blonde distributed the other two to her remaining friends then took her own and sat on the sofa, pulling the flap open and looking inside. Brian put the book down and did the same. Rachel was staring at the one she'd received, and finally opened it slightly reluctantly.

Alec was still playing with the damn towel.

In the envelope were a number of documents, the first being a letter to her from what her power and her eyes told her. Taking it out and unfolding it, she started reading.

 _Hello, Sarah._

 _We've never met, but we have more in common than you'd expect. In time you'll realize why. For now, I just wanted to say hello and thank you for doing the right thing with Calvert's data. That will stand you in good stead with Director Piggot should you want to claim credit for it. You don't have to, you can remain anonymous, but keep it in mind._

 _You and the others have a decision to make. The world has changed very suddenly and there are going to be a lot of things that come out as a result over the next few weeks and months. I expect that one of the changes that will occur will be a considerably lower tolerance for Parahuman villains, since as the Endbringers will no longer be a problem, there won't be the need for Endbringer truces. You may wish to reevaluate your lifestyle in light of that. I doubt it will happen overnight, but the revolving door for minor villains may well become much less open._

 _I know you didn't want to be a villain in the first place, and neither did your friends. Coil is done for, which gives you a lot more options than you had. You can all go your separate ways if you want, of course, but I also know that you have a good relationship with them, despite some differences. Don't make hasty decisions._

 _Family is very important, and sometimes friends are more that than actual family. You know what I mean, I think._

 _You'll most likely find the gifts I left useful no matter what you decide. Instructions for everything are included in this envelope. Enjoy them, try to use them responsibly, and have a good life._

 _One last thing. There is a girl called Taylor Hebert who you should meet. You'll get on very well, and she needs friends. I'll leave it up to you how you track her down._

 _Don't be surprised if she tracks_ **_you_ ** _down…_

 _You're going to run into a number of other interesting people in the near future, but I'll leave that as a surprise._

 _Keep smiling, it confuses them!_

 _Metis._

Lowering the paper, Lisa stared at the wall for some time. Beside her, Brian was making sounds of disbelief. Rachel was slowly working her way through a letter of her own, and seemed shocked and overjoyed at the same time.

Alec was now playing with two towels, an orange one wrapped around his head like a turban.

When she'd managed to collect herself, she put the letter to one side and looked through the remaining documentation. The first set turned out to be what appeared to be a totally authentic driver's license in the name of Lisa Wilbourn, unlike the very good but fake set she used at the moment. Everything about it was perfect, and if it was a false one it was by far the best she'd ever seen. Even her power couldn't find flaws with it. There were also a number of supporting documents, and a passport with the same immaculate verisimilitude. The end result was completely real ID in her chosen alias. She suspected from the quality of it that all computer records would back it up perfectly, which would make keeping out of reach of her estranged family much easier if they ever worked out where she'd disappeared to.

The thing that made her stop and stare was the financial document, which had her bank account details on.

 _All_ her bank account details.

Even the ones she'd only set up hours earlier to put Coil's confiscated funds into.

' _How the_ ** _fuck_** _did that damn lizard do_ ** _that?_** " she wondered with astonishment. Even _she_ would have trouble replicating the trick.

She still couldn't figure out even _why_ the reptiles would do this in the first place.

Brian emitted a soft but heartfelt curse under his breath, and when she looked at him, was staring at one document with wide eyes. Deciding that she'd find out later, she went back to her own paperwork. The second book she found stuck in the middle had a title even weirder than the first one had, and the implications were something she couldn't deal with right now, so she put it to one side for later.

When she reached the ' _instructions_ ' she read through the detailed and almost unbelievable paperwork twice before she managed to take it all in.

"This is impossible," Brian muttered. "Aisha's guardianship papers? How the fuck…?"

Ignoring him, she got up and walked over to the table, poked Alec hard in the ribs and pointed sternly at the envelope he appeared to be deliberately avoiding, then picked up one of the small boxes and opened it.

She peered inside at the odd-looking thing floating in a layer of golden viscous fluid, then slowly smiled.

Yeah.

This was going to be… interesting.

* * *

"So what next?" Legend asked as they stepped out of the hole in space onto the helipad on top of the ENE PRT building. Emily waved the startled troopers who immediately raised their weapons to stand down, which they slowly did, then turned to him.

"I get back to work," she said. Indicating Saurial, who had come through with them, the other three lizards vanishing somewhere else, she added, "We still have some things to discuss but they're local matters."

He nodded slowly. "And you don't trust me any more."

The blonde woman sighed. "Saurial says that you didn't know most of what Cauldron was really doing. I believe her. But that doesn't change the fact that half of what I've spent my career doing was based on a series of lies by people I laid my trust in. Forgive me if I'm reluctant to do that again." She shook her head. "Costa-Brown… what she and the rest of them did..."

"They meant well," he tried.

"I know. That doesn't change the fact that they've managed to fuck a lot of things up. And hurt a lot of people in the process. And I won't be able to forget about the Endbringers."

"No one will," he replied in a tired voice. "Poor David. He'll never get over that."

"Nor should he," she snapped. "It wasn't deliberate but my god, he's partially responsible for more death than anyone else in history."

"So are the Endbringers," he reminded her. "Much more directly than he was."

"Can we completely blame the weapon for what happens when someone pulls the trigger?" She looked at him and shrugged. "I don't know. It'll take someone a lot smarter than me to come up with an answer to that. But that's not my problem. They won't attack again, which is the main thing. And if she's right, the Simurgh victims who can be helped at this point will be, which is a good outcome." She motioned to Saurial who was listening silently. "With any luck after that the damn things will disappear and we'll never hear from them again. I'd live with that. Not like we can actually kill them anyway, we've proved that over and over for years."

He nodded a little again. "I suppose so."

"I'm just glad this happened before the rest turned up," she added with a truly disgusted scowl. " _Seventeen_ more? We'd have been totally overwhelmed."

Legend shivered. When Saurial had explained that there were _twenty_ of the things in total, which would be activated one after another in years to come, he'd nearly had a heart attack. The three they already _had_ were far more than they could cope with as it was. He was, despite all the horrible things he'd learned about the people he'd worked with for so long, profoundly grateful that these bizarre reptiles had popped up. There was little doubt that they'd saved everyone even if the fallout was going to go on for years. And cost him and a lot of people he knew personally.

It was a small price to pay overall, he felt, even if Rebecca seemed to think otherwise.

They'd never agree on some things, he knew, and that was one of them. At least the lizards had healed her hand, somehow. Doctor Mother was still trying to work out how they'd done _any_ of the things they had, but he doubted very much that she would. If even the _Entities_ were unable to do that, he didn't think a mere human could.

He was having trouble enough with having had a conversation with the fucking Simurgh on one of the computers at Cauldron, where the Endbringer had clearly and neatly backed up everything Saurial had said. When he'd realized just who he'd interacted with on PHO for some years, he'd felt faint, yet also had trouble suppressing a wave of hysterical laughter.

And spent a few moment wondering if anyone would believe him if he mentioned it.

Probably not.

Rebecca and the others were going to have to get to grips with the new form of things, and the limitations the Family had imposed on them. Not having Doormaker or Clairvoyant able to arbitrarily open portals anywhere they wanted would cause a distinct inconvenience as they'd become used to the facility it provided, but he could understand why Saurial and her relatives felt that was something that should be stopped. The solution they'd provided as an alternative worked nicely and would allow their new role to be carried out.

With any luck they could undo most of the damage they'd caused. He certainly intended to try.

"The PRT is going to need a new Chief Director," he commented after a moment.

She glared at him. " _Do not_ suggest that I should get that job," she snarled, making him actually lean away for a second. "I'll resign first. Find someone else." She thought, then added firmly, "And make fucking sure it's not Tagg or I'll probably be forced to shoot the bastard. I have enough to do keeping this place running, since I'm sure that after our scaly friends disappear back wherever it really is they come from Brockton Bay will descend into insanity again sooner or later. It's what this place _does_." She looked out at the view below them. "Fucking place is cursed."

"It's not that bad, Emily," Saurial smiled. "I quite like it."

"You're completely insane, so of course you do," the woman sighed. "I must be too to stay here and not just quit."

"You have a level of dedication to duty many would find enviable," Legend said with a small smile. She gave him a hard look, snorted, and turned away.

"Fuck off, Legend, I have work to do. Don't come back for a few months, please."

Saurial glanced at him. They watched the woman stomp over to the troopers and start barking orders, then go inside the building. The guards kept an eye on them but didn't approach. "I meant it, you know," the lizard said a few seconds later. "I don't blame you for what your friends did. They deliberately kept you in the dark about most of it."

"I blame myself, though," he replied sadly. "I should have realized. The clues were there, looking back at it. I just didn't _want_ to know the truth. And I believed we were doing the right thing."

"In the wrong way."

"Yes. But what else _could_ we do?"

She shrugged slightly with a sigh. "I'd like to say something else, but I know it's not quite that easy. We have the advantage of an outside viewpoint that you didn't have. Even so, if someone on the inside had even once sat down and thought about it, I'm pretty sure they'd have worked out what a mess it was. But we've gone over that and it's in the past."

"Can't change what's happened," he agreed.

"You can, but you _really_ shouldn't," she told him. He looked at her to see her shaking her head. "Word of warning… If anyone ever comes up with a method of time travel, _stop them_."

He made a mental note to look into that. It apparently worried her, and that worried _him_.

Turning to look out at the city, brightly lit by an unusually warm winter sun on what was a very nice day, he took a deep breath. "Thank you for helping us," he said quietly. "Even if it's turned the world upside down."

"You're welcome. We do what we can. Upside down worlds are a specialty. See you around."

She grinned, touched a finger to the brim of her hat, and disappeared.

He stood there looking around for a while, then took off and headed for New York to await whatever happened next.

* * *

Skidmark, or as his parents had named him, Adam, jolted awake feeling more clearheaded than he could remember.

Ever.

Staring at the ceiling he tried to work out why. What had he taken? It had to have been something good.

After some time he became aware that something was wrong. Or if not wrong, very different. What was it?

Beside him, Sherrel made a weird sound then sat up. "Holy shit!" she squawked. "Why do I feel like this?"

"Like what?" he asked.

"Like I could run around the bay twice and still bench press a gearbox," she replied, shaking her head then rubbing her eyes. "Jesus, Skiddy, what did we _take?_ "

"I can't remember," he told her honestly. "Didn't we talk about lizards or something…?"

"Something about a school..." she said, sounding confused. "Lizards?"

He spotted movement in the corner of the darkened room and squinted. Then nearly stopped breathing.

"Why lizards?" she mused out loud, shaking her head. "That's so weird. I can't remember why we were talking about it. God I feel so wired. But in a good way, you know? Not like that shit we got from down south, this is more… I don't know how to explain it. Like my mind is firing on all cylinders. I've got so many ideas…. Skiddy, why don't we make something really cool? I'm tired of trucks and shit like that."

He put a hand on her head and turned it to look in the same direction he was.

She giggled at the motion, then went very, very still.

"Hello, Adam and Sherrel," the fucking _enormous_ armored reptilian _thing_ that was standing in the corner said calmly, in a voice that was so deep he felt it in his chest. "We need to talk..."

* * *

"Do you want to let the PRT know you are a Parahuman?" Taylor considered the question as Metis watched her, glancing at her father for a moment. He was also watching her, but seemed willing to let her decide for herself. He'd been in a funny mood since the other version of himself had spent a couple of hours talking to him.

That had been even weirder than seeing a version of herself that could turn into a lizard.

Two lizards, thinking about it.

Her life had become _very_ strange recently, she thought idly.

"Do I have to?" she asked slowly after mulling the question over for a while.

"No. They might suspect, since that locker is a prime Trigger candidate and they'll know that, but on the other hand Saurial got you out very quickly so they might not believe it happened that fast," Metis replied. "They also have a lot of other things to think about right now, so I doubt they'll push. If you're careful, it's quite likely that no one will work it out for some time if ever unless you tell them."

"OK," she nodded.

"Do you want to be a hero?" Ianthe asked curiously. Then she smiled. "Or a villain?"

Taylor laughed. "I don't think I'd make a good villain," she said with a grin.

"You'd be surprised." Ianthe poked Metis, who shut up with a smirk.

"Um… I'd rather be a hero," Taylor said after a moment, eyeing the black lizard, then returning her attention to her sister. "But I don't feel like I want to go running out onto the street and jump right in."

"Thank god," her father mumbled, making her giggle.

"Good. Your powers will need training before you can really reach your full potential but I think you could be a better than average hero if you want to," Ianthe smiled. "We have some things we can arrange that would help you there too if you'd like them."

"Maybe she should join the Wards if she wants to help people," her father suggested a little dubiously.

"I don't really want to do that, Dad," she said with a sigh, while wondering what Ianthe meant with considerable interest. "Not right now. I mean, with Sophia being one..." He put his arm around her. "I know that Saurial said they didn't know and most of them are good people, but… It's going to take a while to get over what happened."

"Understandable," Metis nodded. "I suspect even Director Piggot would understand that. Considering everything that's happened, things will be a lot safer around here now, and for other reasons you won't be driven to get involved in conflict situations. But I know that having powers means you want to use them. Shards are like that. The one you have is… interesting." She grinned. "We have a history. It attracts certain other ones on a fairly regular basis, we've noticed. You'll probably find the results are worth it."

Taylor looked curiously at her, wondering what that meant.

"So for now, it's probably best to just carefully experiment and learn how your ability works, what you can do, and read the manual. In time, you'll work out your next move. We're glad to help with that." Metis looked at Ianthe, who nodded. "And we can suggest some people you should probably meet soon. You'll be going to a better school anyway and you're bound to bump into them there. It'll be good for all of you."

"However, before that happens, you need to meet Director Piggot, because she's not going to wait forever," a familiar voice said as Saurial blinked into existence next to the other two. "Poor woman has had a hard couple of days and would probably like a return to standard procedures. I promised I'd let her talk to you two and get your side of the story about Winslow." She smiled at Taylor. "If you're ready."

Taking a breath, Taylor nodded. "Yeah, I can do that, I think."

"You sure?" The alternate version of herself studied her. She nodded again.

"Yes. Better to get it out of the way." With a glance at her father, she saw he agreed.

"All right. Do you want to go there, or have her come here? She'd prefer the first one, it's a sort of power play, but right now if you want her to come to you, she will."

"What do you think, Dad?" she asked her father.

He considered the matter, then replied, "Will you come with us if we go to the PRT?"

"Sure. I don't mind at all. If you want me there, I'll be there." Saurial looked at both of them. "So that's how you want to do it?"

"I think so." Taylor shrugged. "It won't take that long, right?"

"Not really, no. They'll ask a lot of questions, want to know exactly what happened and what you saw, but considering how they caught the girls red-handed, there isn't any real doubt about the sequence of events. It's needed for their records and to make the case airtight." The lizard-girl smiled. "Most likely they'll want you to sign a few documents saying you won't go around telling people that Sophia is Shadow Stalker. It's pretty pointless since that video Greg took is all over the web, but there's no harm in it from your point of view. I doubt you want to think about her anyway, and she's certainly not going to bother you again."

Feeling momentarily angry, Taylor wondered if she should refuse to sign something like that. After considering it some more, however, she sighed. "Yeah, OK, I can see your point. No reason to get them pissed with me over something so pointless."

"Exactly. Cooperate with something that doesn't really matter anyway and keep them happy, both sides end up feeling they can deal with it," Metis nodded. "And while the PRT as a whole has issues, Director Piggot is a reasonably fair person. Hard, but fair. If you don't give her any cause to get angry, she'll just follow protocol, ask her questions, and move on. She's a hell of a lot more annoyed at everyone who let this happen than you, trust me. You're the victim after all."

"I wonder if we should push for some form of compensation?" her father said.

"Up to you, but personally I wouldn't bother," Saurial said. "They may well offer something anyway. Insist that you get a transfer to Arcadia, they'll go for that no problem and even if for some reason they don't, we can sort it out easily enough. The city is also likely to approach you with an offer too. They want this to go away, they've got a lot to deal with over Winslow without worrying about lawsuits from you as well as all the other ones that will probably turn up soon. Since you have a damn good case, it'll be in their best interest to settle as fast as possible. I'd advise avoiding attracting any more attention than necessary if you want to stay under the radar."

"It's not like you're going to have to worry about money," Metis added. "We look after family."

"That's generous of you, but..." Her father stopped when Saurial held up a hand with a smile.

"Danny. It's fine. Resources are one thing we don't have any issues with at all, trust me on that. And we're always happy to help out, even if you weren't cousins of a sort. Don't worry about it." Her smile grew. "You're going to get all sorts of interesting things, so you're just going to have to accept that."

Taylor looked at her father, who looked back. She felt intrigued. He clearly felt almost overwhelmed, which she could understand. Things seemed to have snowballed a lot.

Quite an improvement in her eyes, but she could see how it would be a little much for him.

Old people weren't as flexible, after all…

When she giggled at the thought, he gave her a suspicious look, which only made her giggle more. "I feel that my offspring is possibly mocking me inside her head," he complained, shaking his. "All right. I won't protest yet. Just try not to make things go _too_ strange, please?"

"We make no promises," Ianthe chuckled. "And strange is entirely subjective anyway."

"Oh, god."

* * *

Missy slammed the door to her bedroom, stomped to her bed, threw herself onto it face down, coughed violently into her pillow, then lay there feeling like shit and also very sorry for herself. The nasty cold was bad enough, it left her dizzy and tired, and having her parents shouting at each other with her in the middle only added to the sensation of wanting the world to go away and leave her alone.

She couldn't even lie in bed and enjoy having a few days off from school because every time she fell asleep, her lungs filled with crap and she'd wake up feeling like she was choking. "Fucking cold," she grumbled under her breath, then wheezed. Rolling over she looked at the light in the middle of the ceiling and sighed, then coughed again. This one was a bad one, and had already gone on for two days with no sign of stopping.

When she stopped hacking, she grabbed her tablet from the bedside table and turned it on, sitting up a little against the pillows in a somewhat futile attempt to ease the burden on her lungs. It helped a little but not as much as she'd have liked. The sound of raised voices from downstairs made her look up, roll her eyes in disgust, sigh, and go back to looking for something to distract her.

The various threads on the local PHO area diverted her for a while. Whatever had happened at Winslow seemed to have confused things an enormous amount and the fallout of it appeared to be both the ABB and the E88 losing a lot of people. "Good," she muttered in approval. She didn't like either gang. The only worse ones were the Merchants, mostly from a hygiene standpoint, although they could also be very violent at times. Luckily being shit-faced practically all the time made their aim terrible so the main danger was being hit by a stray bullet.

It was commonly joked in the PRT that the best place to be when confronted with an armed Merchant was directly in front of them. You were less likely to be shot…

This wasn't without truth to it based on things she'd seen in the past, she reflected as she read the latest thread posts. Things seemed to be going very strange indeed, she saw. Lizards being peculiar, Shadow Stalker being outed (good riddance in her opinion), the school being closed with the CDC and FBI investigating… All in all she assumed life would be rather different when she was back at work.

All the other bizarre events that seemed to have happened overnight were the subject of a large and growing number of incredulous threads covering the entire planet. Somehow, pretty much every single major threat and a lot of smaller ones seemed to have just… gone away. She scanned a few of them, trying to work out which parts were true and which were the work of internet crazies, then gave up. She'd find out sooner or later from more trustworthy sources and the politics of it all were boring to her although apparently enough to keep a lot of people on PHO entertained for days.

' _It all started with those lizards_ ,' she mused as she dropped her head onto the pillow and put the tablet on her stomach, suppressing another cough with effort. ' _That's bizarre. I wonder if they're somehow involved with all this other stuff? I can't see how, but it can't be a coincidence everything happened after they turned up_.'

She held the tablet over her head with both hands and flicked through some more threads with her thumbs, briefly stopping on one that was about something called Cauldron which appeared to be making a lot of people _very_ agitated. Unable to immediately work out why and not feeling up to finding out right now, she put the device down again and closed her eyes.

 _ **"Psst."**_

Her eyes flew open at the odd hissing sound.

"What was that?" she mumbled, wondering if she'd imagined it.

 _ **"Me."**_

Missy froze, then very slowly turned her head to stare at the window.

"Gah!" she shrieked when she saw what was somehow hanging in space outside it.

 _ **"Shh. I'm not supposed to be here,"**_ the empty cloak whispered in the eeriest voice she'd ever heard, apparently looking from side to side, although how it did that with nothing inside she didn't know. Pushing herself up against the pillows she gaped, then started coughing again, her eyes watering.

 _ **"Nasty cough,"**_ the thing said. She nodded weakly, her head throbbing horribly. Every time she coughed, it felt like it was expanding and it was extremely painful _ **. "Want me to fix it?"**_

"Who _are_ you?" Missy managed, looking up with her eyes streaming tears to see that the thing was now standing next to her bed. She felt worried by having some bizarre Parahuman she'd never seen before in her bedroom but also so ill she couldn't work up the effort to do anything about it for the moment.

 _ **"A friend. They call me Cloak."**_ The empty hood somehow gave the impression of smiling. _ **"I come from beyond..."**_

"Beyond what?" she asked, apprehensive and still worried but also curious. There was an odd feeling of familiarity from the bizarre being, confusing her since she'd definitely never even heard of _Cloak_ before.

 _ **"Oh, just beyond in general,"**_ Cloak giggled. _**"Over that way a few realities."**_

Missy stared as the leathery clawed hand that came out of the cloth waved in a direction that didn't exist.

"Why are you here?" she asked, nearly going off in another coughing fit but managing to stop it. She sniffed hard, her nose full of something horrible.

 _ **"Some friends are in town and I thought I'd see what was going on,"**_ Cloak replied. _**"They'd finished most of it by the time anyone told me though."**_ She sounded disappointed, but brightened up immediately. _ **"I guess they wanted to get that record."**_

"Record?"

This conversation had gone from weird to surreal, Missy thought woozily.

Cloak nodded. _**"Yeah, for fixing an Entity problem."**_

"Entity?"

 _ **"Big stupid aliens that ruin things all over the place,"**_ the creature, which Missy was beginning to suspect may not have been a Parahuman at all, shrugged. _ **"They're a pain in the ass, although some of the things they drop are cool. The guys like screwing them up. Anyway, you'll find out about that later. Want me to fix that cold?"**_

Her head spinning and by this point genuinely wondering if she was asleep and dreaming all this, Missy nodded slowly. "You can fix colds?"

 _ **"Oh, sure, they're easy."**_ The impression of an invisible smile was very strong. _ **"Here, stick this on your hand and press it."**_ The clawed appendage reappeared from inside Cloak's… cloak… a small whitish thing in the palm. After looking at it a little suspiciously, Missy opened her mouth to ask what it was, then instantly started coughing manically again, nearly passing out from the pain.

 _ **"Oops. Here, I'll do it for you,"**_ she dimly heard through the agony. Something touched the back of her hand.

Everything went _very_ weird for a moment.

Then she was looking up at the empty hood, which seemed curious, feeling completely clear headed and better than she had ever done.

"Wow," she exclaimed after a shocked moment. "What was _that?_ "

 _ **"Instant healer, they fix everything,"**_ Cloak replied with a smile in her voice. _**"A Family product, they're really popular."**_

Sitting up, then inhaling and exhaling experimentally, Missy found that she was breathing perfectly and all the pain had just gone away. She looked at the apparently empty clothing, which was looking back. "Thanks," she said gratefully.

 _ **"My pleasure,"**_ Cloak replied. The thing looked around, then added, _**"I'm going to have to go soon before someone finds me and yells. They're still sort of annoyed after what happened last time and I'm supposed to ask first."**_

"What happened last time?" she asked curiously.

 _ **"Meh, they fixed it,"**_ Cloak said evasively with a wave of a hand. _ **"Nothing serious. Honest. Well… no, it's nothing."**_

Missy looked suspiciously at her. That didn't sound _entirely_ convincing, she thought to herself.

 _ **"Anyway,"**_ her visitor went on a tiny bit too hastily, _**"I have something I thought you'd like. Here you go."**_ She produced a book from somewhere, giving it to Missy, who took it and looked at the cover.

It had an image that was… _amazing.  
_  
"Oh my god," she whispered, staring at it in fascination.

 _ **"I know, right?"** _Cloak said happily. _ **"It took me ages. I'm very pleased with the result though."**_

At the top, somehow hovering _over_ the surface, the title read ' **Tips and Tricks on how to Math the Multiverse**.' Below this, it added helpfully, ' ** _Making Space Your Bitch: A Practical Guide._** '

She read it twice, then giggled, looking up at her weird visitor. "I'm not sure I get it."

 **"You will."** Cloak seemed sure of herself. **"Don't show it to anyone, though. Most people can't handle it, and they might try to take it away, which wouldn't end well. Our little secret for now, OK?"** She looked around again, then leaned closer and lowered her voice. **"It's really cool, you'll enjoy it. I promise. I'll try to visit again at some point and we can talk more, but for now, read that, practice the exercises, and have fun."**

Moving back, she went on, _**"The guys will have some other stuff for you and the rest of the Wards, but I wanted you to have that one as well. See you, Missy."**_ Cloak lifted a hand, waved, then something weird happened to space and she wasn't there any more.

It was only then that Missy realized that the weird… person… had apparently known she was a Ward and what her Parahuman identity was. Which was kind of worrying, but it was too late now even if she knew what to do about it.

Wondering if she should follow protocol and report the encounter, she opened the book after admiring the image on the cover some more. Five minutes later she was engrossed in the contents to the point that she didn't hear her mother shouting at her father any more.

Thoughts of telling someone else evaporated like water on a hot pavement…

And when her mother went past her daughter's bedroom later, she paused for a moment at the slightly unnerving giggling coming from inside, before shaking her head and going to call a friend and complain, yet again, about her husband.

* * *

Sitting in his incredibly carefully arranged office in Boston, the man known to the world as Accord thoughtfully read the letter once again. He admired the elegant handwriting, the best he'd ever seen other than his own, and the obvious care the author had used in selecting the correct words to convey their thoughts in the most efficient manner. Even the paper felt remarkable under his fingers, making him wonder where they'd acquired it and whether he could locate the source for himself.

Placing it down in the exact center of his desk, he made sure it was aligned with the edges perfectly, then considered it for a few minutes, still thinking hard. Eventually he turned his attention to the beautiful box that had accompanied the missive. This was made out of some wood he'd never encountered, in the form of a geometrically perfect cube, polished to the point the utterly flawless surface shone under the lights. The hinges were invisible, but the top opened when pressed in the right spot, to reveal the contents.

He examined those contents, this being a similarly flawless three inch diameter sphere of what by the refractive index was diamond. It was supported by a stand made of platinum worked with an enormously detailed and most excellently designed geometrical pattern which he realized after some study represented a complex mathematical function.

Overall it was one of the single most beautiful artifacts he'd ever seen.

He admired it some more, then smiled. Yes, he thought it would be entirely possible to fulfill the request in the letter. With one last glance at the gift, he turned his attention to his computer. Opening the planning software, which he noted with a frown still had one of the buttons along the top of the window offset by a pixel too far to the right, which would require rectification, he typed rapidly and precisely.

' ** _Notes on Rejuvenation and Commercial Revitalization Scheme for Brockton Bay_** ' was the heading. Planning carefully, he began his work, feeling appreciated for once, and oddly less tense than he usually was these days.

It was nice.

* * *

Emily nodded, making some notes. She glanced at Hannah who was listening carefully and also doing the same. "Thank you, Miss Hebert," she said when the girl finished talking. "That does clear up a number of things we were slightly confused about and sets the time line straight. Your documentation will help too." Looking to the side at the thick bundle of notes and printouts that the girl had brought with her, she added, "We will make copies of this and get the original back to you within two days, you have my word. And this is _not_ going to be swept under the carpet, I can assure both of you of that." She shook her head as she checked her notes and corrected a couple of words, then looked up at the Heberts.

"I am very sorry indeed that one of the Wards was involved in this at all, never mind being the apparent instigator of it. And there were a number of systemic failings that should not have happened. We are investigating very carefully and a number of people have already been arrested. This is precisely the sort of activity we try to prevent."

"It's a pity that this couldn't have been stopped months ago," Danny Hebert commented slightly acidly.

"That is true, but all of us for various reasons were working with incomplete information," she replied, putting her pen down and rubbing her eyes for a second. "My apologies, I've had a very long day or two and it's not likely to slow down for some time due to… our friends," she added, glancing at Saurial, who had accompanied the Heberts and watched from one side without saying anything. The lizard smiled a little, making her sigh, then return her attention to the Heberts. "It is what it is. All we can do now is deal with the situation we find ourselves in as best we can. And on the whole the long term results will be better than they could have been, which is something of a relief."

She wondered how much of the truth Saurial and her family had told the Heberts. Emily still didn't know quite _why_ the reptilian aliens were so concerned with these people but it was undeniable that they were. Possibly it had something to do with Saurial coming across the girl at the worst moment in her life, possibly there was something else, but the link was certainly there. It wasn't anything she was going to push too hard, though, since the outcome could well be unpleasant and she had more than enough to do as it was.

' _Worst moment of her life_ ,' she suddenly thought, giving the girl a closer look. ' _I wonder..._ '

With a glance at Saurial, who was watching her with a glint in her glowing eyes, she dropped that particular idea for now. If it was as she half-expected, it was something that could wait for another day, and might never become a problem anyway. And if it wasn't, well, she didn't feel like dredging up bad memories in someone who seemed to be recovering remarkably well from months of trauma and abuse. There was no point to it after all. She had what she needed.

And she suspected that lizards or no lizards, Danny Hebert was someone who'd make a bad enemy if sufficiently motivated. Why risk that if there was an alternative?

Folding her hands across her notebook she regarded the two on the other side of the interview table. "All right. I have what I need. Do you have any requirements the PRT can aid you with in recompense for our late action in this case?" She braced herself for demands for compensation or something serious of that nature, which under the circumstances wouldn't be unexpected. Hopefully they'd be at least vaguely reasonable about it.

Taylor looked at her father, who nodded a little, then at Saurial, who did the same. She returned to looking at Emily, appearing slightly nervous. "Um..." The girl cleared her throat as Emily patiently waited. "I… I'd like to go to Arcadia? Please?"

As everyone looked at her, she added somewhat sadly, "I only went to Winslow to be with Emma. I had the marks for Arcadia but..." She sighed and shrugged as her father put his hand on her shoulder. "Those girls ruined everything. Stole my work, wrecked my projects, my marks went down the toilet..."

Emily glanced at Hannah who was looking at Taylor with sympathy visible in her eyes, then looked back at the brunette girl. "I believe we can swing that, yes," she replied evenly. "We have a certain amount of influence in that area. What else?"

"That's it." Taylor seemed much happier suddenly.

"Really? You'll be happy with a transfer to Arcadia?" Emily was relieved but quite surprised. If it had been _her_ she'd have squeezed the PRT for everything she could get, but then she was a vindictive bitch at heart, she thought privately.

The young woman shrugged, seeming tired. "I just want to forget about Winslow. Being somewhere where I can just get on with school and not have to look over my shoulder every second will be more of a change than you can understand. Money won't fix what they did, so why try to force it out of you? I'd rather move on and I don't want to make your job any harder." She looked at the lizard-girl who appeared pleased. "Saurial told us about how much you have to do, after all. I can deal with everything else if I'm somewhere that doesn't remind me about what happened."

"A very mature attitude, Taylor," Emily said in the end when the girl fell silent. "I'm impressed. All right, I will arrange that. From what I understand even with help from our friend here Winslow will be closed for at least two weeks anyway, so you wouldn't have gone back for that long. Alternative accommodations are being made for the students there but even that is likely to take some time. We should be able to arrange a transfer within that period fairly easily."

"Thank you, Director," the girl said gratefully.

"You're welcome. Mr Hebert? Do you have any requests?" She looked at the man who'd been mostly quiet since he'd giving his own interview.

"Nothing that the PRT can really help with, I think," he replied. "Unless you need a large number of very hard working dockworkers for any major projects."

She smiled a little. "I will bear that in mind," she assured him. "Should it come up at any point." Checking the time, she nodded and closed her notebook. "In that case, I believe we're done here. Miss Militia will arrange the NDAs for you covering the true identity of Shadow Stalker. I realize that it's very much bolting the gate after losing the horse but it's protocol and I have little choice in the matter." She turned to the recording equipment. "Interview terminated fourteen eighteen eastern time, Director Emily Piggot interviewing officer, Miss Militia as witness." Tapping the relevant control, she made sure the recording was filed, then turned back.

"Off the record, Taylor, I am really am sorry about what you went through," she said quietly. "It should never have happened. I will make sure it never does again, as long as I have any influence with the PRT."

"Thank you, Director Piggot," Taylor replied softly. "I'm just glad it's over. And I wish I knew why Emma turned on me like that. I still can't figure it out and I've been trying for close to two years." She looked at Saurial, then back to Emily. "Saurial told me something about Emma that makes me incredibly angry but I still can't see why it would do that to her. I mean, why take it out on me?"

"Post traumatic stress is a strange thing," Emily commented having considered the girl's words. "I've read the reports and interviews with Miss Barnes and I know which event you're referring to. I'm afraid that Sophia Hess, who has a very… damaged… view of the world, happened to meet your friend at exactly the wrong moment in her life and all of you paid the price. It certainly wasn't anything you did, don't ever think that. Both those girls, and the Clements girl, did what they did of their own free will. Mental illness explains aspects of it but it doesn't mean it was in any way right." She sighed faintly. "The court cases are going to get unpleasant, I suspect. But that's nothing you really need to concern yourself with. There is enough evidence that you may well not even get called as a witness."

"While your experience was horrific, Taylor," Hannah added, making them look at her, "from a legal standpoint the biohazard contamination of the school is probably more serious than the assault charges. That's not to minimize what happened to you, of course, it's merely what the prosecution will concentrate on. They'll go for whatever charge is most likely to result in conviction."

"I understand," Taylor said, nodding. "I just wish it hadn't happened." She sighed, rubbing her face with one hand. "I miss my friend even after everything that happened."

"That's understandable," Emily told her, feeling sorry for the girl. "It speaks well of you that you can even think of her as a friend after all that. But it's out of your hands now, so all you can do is let the people who are supposed to deal with it do so and move on with your life." She smiled a bit ruefully. "Bad things happen and it can be hard dealing with them but if you let them fester they can cause even more problems."

With a look at Saurial, she added, "Sometimes you need someone from the outside to point that out. It can be hard to admit it to yourself."

"I guess, yeah," Taylor nodded, looking like she was carefully considering the words.

"Well, that's all we needed," Emily said, putting her pen away and picking up the notebook, then standing. "Once again, thank you for coming in. I'll make sure that transfer happens and you should be notified about it shortly. We'll return your documents very soon too, as I said. I have other work I need to get back to so if you'll excuse me..." She held out her hand, both Heberts shaking it, then watched as Hannah led them out. Saurial got up to follow them, stopping at the door to look back at her.

"Thank you," the reptile said, nodding respectfully. "She was worried about this and it went better than either of them expected, I think."

"Considering all that happened in the last day or so, I just want that case done with," Emily stated. "That damn girl has caused so much trouble she'll be lucky to see the light of day for the next decade."

"Indeed," Saurial sighed. "She's got some major problems."

"Damn straight. I knew she was trouble from the start but I hoped..." Emily shook her head in disgust as she trailed off. "At least we won't have to worry about her screwing up again, which is something."

"I suppose so," the lizard smiled. "I'll arrange to get you a document with a number of possible upcoming Parahuman threats which you'll want to look at before we leave. It might be helpful. But now I'd better go take them home. It's been fun."

"For you, it probably has," Emily grunted. "Most of the rest of us are still trying to work out what the fuck happened."

Saurial smirked. "You'll get used to it, as a friend of mine says," she chuckled. "See you around, Emily. Take care, and if you need us, there are a few people around who can get hold of us."

"Go away, you mad reptile," Emily sighed. "Take your insane relatives with you and leave us poor humans to try to work out what to do next."

"By your command, Director," the creature said, saluting her, then disappearing with a faint laugh being the last thing she heard.

Deciding that she was going to abuse the good health that had been pushed on her with at _least_ two beers when she went off duty, Emily headed for her office, a small smile coming and going. "Lizards be nuts," she muttered to herself.

When her phone rang she pulled it out and answered. "Piggot."

"Director? This is Tim in reception." The voice was slightly familiar as being that of one of the junior staff downstairs.

"Yes? What do you need?" she asked, walking fast and enjoying nothing hurting.

"Ah..." She heard him swallow. "Skidmark and Squealer are in the lobby."

She stopped dead.

"What?" Her voice was flat.

"They… want to join the Protectorate? And are willing to give us information on every drug supplier on the east coast as a gesture of good faith?" He sounded extremely confused. "And there are about sixty Merchants, or former Merchants, sitting down outside in neat lines, all wanting to surrender." He took a deep breath, then finished, "What do I do?"

The man's voice sounded very plaintive on the last few words.

Very deliberately Emily turned ninety degrees, walked to the nearest wall, and gently banged her head on it three times. "Fucking lizards," she moaned.

"Ma'am?" Now he sounded confused.

"Don't do anything stupid, Tim," she instructed, her forehead leaning on the wall. "Call Armsmaster for backup, get a couple of squads down there, tell them to keep an eye on things but not start anything, and wait. I'll be down in a minute."

"Please hurry, ma'am," he said. "Squealer is taking one of the vending machines apart and talking about making a spacecraft from the parts..." He hung up as she sighed heavily.

"Oh god. Why me?"

Then she went to get some legal expertise.

Clearly the influence of those damn reptiles was still spreading. Somehow.

* * *

The sound of the doorbell interrupted Carol as she was talking to her sister on the phone. "Amy," she said to the brunette who was rummaging in the fridge for a snack having just arrived back after school, "Go and see who that is, please."

"OK," the girl said, closing the appliance and heading off to do that. She opened the door and stared.

"Delivery for the Dallon family?" the… delivery person… said cheerfully, holding out a box. Amy gaped at the familiar reptilian face under a UPEX hat, the rest of the lizard dressed in the normal uniform with modifications to fit the unusual body shape. Opening her mouth to ask what the _fuck_ was going on, she closed it when Saurial put a finger over her lips, winked, and added, "Shh. I'm in disguise."

Looking at the tail twitching around behind her, Amy said with heavy sarcasm, "Yeah, your disguise is nearly perfect."

Saurial beamed. "I know! Cool, isn't it?" She wiggled the box in her hand. "Here you go."

Somewhat uncertainly Amy accepted it, finding it was quite heavy. "Sign here, please," Saurial requested, holding out an old-fashioned paper delivery note on a clipboard. Amy shuffled the box under one arm and took the thing along with the pen the lizard-girl handed her, scribbled her name, and handed it back. Tearing off the top sheet, Saurial gave it back to her. "Keep the pen, it's a nice one," she said with another grin.

Amy shrugged and put the oddly heavy implement into her pocket. A good pen was always worth hanging onto. After a moment's apparently consideration, Saurial held out her hand. "It was nice to meet you the other day, by the way," she said pleasantly.

Deciding there was no harm in it, Amy took her hand…

When she came back from wherever it was she'd been, it was in time to see the lizard getting into a perfectly normal-looking delivery truck idling at the curb. "Have fun!" she called, waving, then driving off. Amy stared, her mind whirling, looked at the paper in her hand, then back at the truck.

Which wasn't there any more.

Peering both ways down the street to see a total absence of brown and white truck, she shook her head a little dizzily, then went back into the house, holding the mysterious box in both hands.

"Who was it?" her mother said as she went into the living room, peering out of the kitchen.

"Delivery for us," she replied, deciding that it was probably best not to mention who had delivered the thing, whatever it was. It clearly wasn't anything dangerous since after what she'd seen the day before, if those bizarre reptiles wanted to cause trouble there wasn't a thing any of them could to about it.

She was still trying to work out what it was her power had detected.

As far as she could tell, so was her power. Which was just peculiar.

"Who's it from?" Vicky said, coming down the stairs and entering behind her, an inch off the floor. Spotting the severe look their mother was giving her, she flushed a little and dropped to the ground.

"It says..." Amy read the label for the first time. "FamTech Specialty Services, a division of BBFO, LLC."

"Never heard of them," Carol said, coming into the room from the kitchen while drying her hands on a cloth. "Have either of you ordered something?"

"Not me," Vicky replied. Amy shook her head, wondering what was in the box when you realized who'd dropped it off.

"Mark! Did you order something from a company called FamTech?" Carol called.

"No," their father shouted back, "Never heard of them."

"We got a delivery from them," Carol added as the man came into the room from the study at the back of the house, looking more in the now than he often was. He'd been visibly less out of it the last couple of days for some reason. "It's probably some sort of scam wanting New Wave's sponsorship or something like that."

"We could always open it and find out," Vicky suggested, peering at the box with interest.

"We should send it back," Carol insisted.

"No return address," Amy pointed out. "Except this squiggle here. Is that even writing?" She squinted at the spiky almost-characters on the label and shrugged.

"Come on, Mom, it's addressed to us. Let's see what it is!" Vicky seemed eager. "Ooh. Maybe it's some sort of perfume samples or something!"

"That would be an awful lot of perfume," Amy snickered, holding the foot cubed box up. "About a gallon of it. Anyway, why would someone send the entire family _perfume?_ "

Her sister shrugged. "No idea. It was the first thing that came to mind."

"If you can call what you have a mind," Amy snarked, ducking as the blonde gently swung at her then grinning.

"Girls, please," Carol said sternly. "Put it on the table, Amy."

She did so, then watched as her mother carefully inspected it. "I can't see anything useful," she complained, turning it over.

"Just open it, Mom," Vicky sighed.

"It could be dangerous."

"Well, let _me_ open it then!" The taller girl moved to do just that.

Their mother opened her mouth to say something else, but Vicky had already grabbed the neat paper outer wrapping and yanked, tearing it off in one motion. Inside was a metal packing case, made of something gray and dully gleaming. "Oh, cool box," Vicky said, tapping it. "How do you open it?"

"Victoria! Think, please!" Carol snapped. She cautiously moved closer and studied the thing, as did the others. "How _do_ you open it?" she wondered out loud, sounding confused. "Where did this come from?"

Amy pointed to the small logo in one corner of the box. "FamTech, again." She thought it looked vaguely familiar for some reason, then after a few seconds pulled the pen Saurial had given her out of her pocket and looked at it closely. Sure enough, the same intricate logo was on that too.

Deciding to keep that to herself, she put the pen away again and studied the box. Surely there was some way into the damn thing, or else why send it to them? The lizards were strange, that much was abundantly clear, but they seemed to have a reason for most of what they did. Putting her hand out she ran it over the top of the container, feeling its incredibly slick surface with interest.

When her hand passed over the exact center of the box, there was a beep.

Everyone stopped moving and stared at it in combinations of worry and interest.

" _Good afternoon, Dallon family_ ," a pleasant voice with a familiar and slightly odd accent sounded. " _BBFO, LLC is pleased to offer you all a chance to have the latest in superhero equipment as an introduction to our products. As a gesture of good will and acknowledgment of your recent demonstration of civic responsibility, this offer is free and without any obligation. Should you require additional services, please refer to our catalog which is included in the package. We hope you will find our rates very competitive. Have a nice day, and enjoy your products._ " There was a pause, then the box added, " _This box will self-open in five seconds_."

As they were gaping at it, the thing beeped five times, then the lid clicked and retracted.

Amy, being nearest, was the first to peer inside.

"Holy shit," she mumbled when her eyes twisted disconcertingly. "It's bigger on the inside!"

This was true. She could see far more things in there than should possibly have fitted.

Looking back, she saw her father was staring with an expression of bewilderment, Vicky was smiling in an excited and mildly deranged way, and Carol was looking _extremely_ confused and very suspicious.

"That sounded like one of those crazy lizards," her sister exclaimed.

"It did, yes," Amy agreed mildly, looking back into the container. She could see four more boxes, one with each of their names on. Shrugging she tentatively reached inside, grabbing the first one and pulling it out before Carol could stop her. She put it on the table and went in for the next one.

By the time she'd retrieved the last one, Vicky was holding on to her to stop her falling in, since the impossible shipping container was at least four feet deep internally. When they were all removed, they looked at the labeled boxes, which were brightly colored and had images and text on them like something from a high end electronics shop. And all the same size as the one they'd come out of.

Amy stared at the one with Vicky's name on it and started laughing. It was white and gold, and bore a label in very professional writing on the side:

 **FamTech™ Collateral Damage Barbie® Accessory Pack  
**  
 **Latest technology includes FamComm® communications system!  
Never lose contact with your teammates!  
User selectable color scheme!  
Full environment control system at no extra cost!  
New! Seven accessory ports for optional FamTech™ upgrades!  
Tail-ready®!  
Designed by FamTech™, a BBFO, LLC subsidiary.  
**  
 **"Please Superhero Responsibly"**

"What the _fuck!_ " Vicky squawked as she read the side of the box, grabbing it off the table. Amy was laughing too hard to reply, her voice disappearing into a squeak every time she tried, so she just pointed at the box, then her sister. A chuckle from behind them made them look at Mark, who was smiling. Carol was still looking confused.

"Someone may know about you, dear," he said, sounding highly amused.

Vicky glared at him, then at the box, looking offended. "I'm not that bad," she muttered.

"You really are sometimes, sis," Amy snorted, still giggling but now able to speak. "You really, really are."

"Some sister you are," the other girl sighed.

She shook the box, then turned it upside down, before examining every face of it. "How the hell do you open this?"

"Try what I did," Amy suggested. Vicky put her hand on the center of the apparent top then jumped when it beeped cheerily.

" _Owner recognized, access granted,_ " the thing said calmly. " _Please put this case on a flat surface_." Somewhat gingerly, the blonde carefully put it down on the table again.

" _Thank you!_ " it said, sounding like it actually meant it, which was just bizarre from an inanimate object. There was the same disturbing effect as the top just went away, then the sides folded down in the same manner, while at the same time something shot up from the middle to stop about five and a half feet in the air. Everyone stepped back in surprise, then stared at the formfitting costume in neutral gray that was now suspended on what looked like some form of clothes rack that had appeared from nowhere. A helmet was on top of the entire thing.

" _Costume deployed. Please read the manual provided for instructions on advanced features. Accessories are stowed in internal storage areas, access pre-granted to Victoria Dallon, AKA Glory Girl, only at this time_." The voice sounded pleased.

"Fuck _me_ ," Vicky mumbled, wide eyed. She reached out and touched the costume, then felt it curiously. "What the hell is this made of?"

"I have no idea, but the workmanship is _amazing_ ," Amy replied, also studying it closely with considerable interest. "Some sort of Tinker material, maybe? It's sure not ordinary cloth."

"Extraordinary," their father remarked, leaning closer to examine the clothing. "Very high quality, and expensive, no matter what it's made of. It looks like it's exactly your size as well, Vicky." He tapped the helmet, which was reminiscent of a very high tech motorcycle one, only not quite like anything Amy had ever seen. "I wonder what this is made from, it's not plastic. Some sort of metal, perhaps? The faceplate looks like glass but isn't."

Carol exploded behind them, her voice shrill. "Who on earth sent all this?" she demanded in what was rapidly becoming anger.

"Obviously it was Saurial and her relatives, Mom," Vicky replied in a somewhat offhand way, still stroking the sleeve of the costume. "Like it said, they were pleased we helped out, and they must have decided to give us something cool. That's nice of them."

"They seem to be decent people," Amy added. ' _If very weird with a strange sense of humor_ ,' she thought, smiling to herself. ' _And not human at all..._ ' Her power had told her that when she'd shaken Saurial's hand, before it had stared in total shock then gone very thoughtful indeed.

Working out how to removed the costume from its stand, Vicky held it up to herself. "This will fit perfectly," she said with joy. "I'm going to try it on." Before Carol could say anything she'd disappeared out the door, heading up to her bedroom.

"But..." Carol looked after her, then at her husband. "What's going on?" she asked weakly.

He shrugged. "I have no idea but the girls seem to like it," he replied, smiling.

"Oh, you're no help at all sometimes," she grumbled. He picked up the box with her name on it and handed it to her.

"Open yours and see what it is," he suggested. Apparently he'd decided it was safe, Amy mused. She turned to look at the white one with her name on, a red cross emblazoned on both sides and the top, which was apparently a ' **FamTech™ Healer Pack, with Panacea Load-out.** '

Whatever the hell _that_ was.

Moving it to the floor so it would be easier to access, she put her hand on top and waited for the beep. " _Owner recognized, access granted,_ " it said, in the same voice as Vicky's one. A moment of visual effects later and there was another similar costume hanging in front of her. " _Costume deployed. Please read the manual provided for instructions on advanced features. Accessories are stowed in internal storage areas, access pre-granted to Amy Dallon, AKA Panacea, only at this time_."

"Cool," she grinned. Bending down she examined the flat base of the box which was the only part left at this point, then acting on a hunch put her hand on it. It beeped again.

" _Stowage procedure in two seconds_ ," it warned. Removing her hand, she watched as the costume vanished and the box reformed.

"Very cool indeed."

As her parents opened their own boxes to reveal two more costumes of the correct size, she picked the box up and retired to her bedroom, smiling to herself.

On the way up the stairs she read the label on the box again and wondered what on earth ' _Tail-ready_ ' meant…

Probably some sort of lizard joke.

When she was in her room with the door shut, she activated the box again and unclipped the costume, examining it inside and out. It was fairly obvious how to put it on, so she took her shoes off and did exactly that. To her lack of surprise, it fitted like a glove. As did the gloves. And the boots. It was like it was made to her exact measurements, although she had no idea how they'd managed that.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she smiled. It was very flattering to her figure, and looked amazing. "Hmm. Color selectable, it said. I wonder how?" she mumbled, patting herself down. She found what appeared to be a pocket and stuck her hand into it, discovering without all that much surprise it was much larger than normal reality would allow for. Taking out the various things she found in it, she put them on the bed and studied them. There was a bottle full of some sort of little ivory chips, whatever they were, another one of bright pink almost-spheres, two collapsible batons with the FamTech logo she was becoming familiar with, made of the same dull gray metal the shipping box was, a butterfly knife of the same thing, three sets of handcuffs likewise, a coil of at least two hundred feet of cable, again that metal in the form of some complex chain like jewelry, a book that seemed to be the previously mentioned instructions based on the words on the cover, a flat box about twice the size of a pack of cards, and finally a second book that had a title which made her simply gape at it in disbelief.

Very slowly she picked it up, looked at it, then opened it to the first page.

Ten minutes later she gently closed it and put it down, then sat on the bed and stared out the window.

"Jesus," she whispered.

Oh, yeah. Things were going to be different, no doubt about that.

Shaking herself, she pushed the book to one side, since it would take a long time to read anyway and she wanted to see what else there was. Grabbing the instruction manual, which thankfully was far less full of earth-shattering revelations, she leafed through it with steadily raising eyebrows, until she found out how to access the color changing feature the box mentioned. Somewhat dubiously she put her hand on her chest and concentrated on the effect she wanted, twitching when the entire costume went brilliant white.

"Fucking hell," she murmured, shocked. "That's amazing." With a little more work, she managed to get her normal color scheme and symbology on the suit. Shaking her head in respectful admiration, she went back to the manual and looked up the specifications of the costume, then stared in amazement.

"Wow. In this I'm practically a Brute," she marveled. "Air storage for a week, good from nearly absolute zero to over two thousand degrees, _how much_ internal storage?!" She reread the figure and shook her head in awe. "I wonder how much this would go for on the open market?"

Millions, probably.

Putting the manual down, she looked at the other items, then picked up the box and turned it over in her hand, wondering what was in it. She discovered that on the other side was what looked like a perfectly ordinary post-it note.

Peeling it off she held it up and read it.

 _Hi. Open this only when you're definitely alone. You'll like it, and I bet it gives you a lot of ideas I'll be interested to see what you come up with. And don't be afraid of your powers. If you keep them happy, which isn't hard, they'll be the best thing that ever happened to you, and a lot of other people too. By the way, take a break every now and then. You can't fix everyone the hard way, trust me. And when you meet Taylor, say hi from me._

 _Ianthe._

 _PS. I'll be in touch soon enough..._

After a moment's thought, she put the note back on the box and slipped it into her pocket. That could wait too. She needed to see what the others were doing, since she could hear voices downstairs. Moments later the front door bell rang, the sound of it opening coming to her almost immediately, followed by familiar voices that sounded like the entire Pelham family had arrived at once.

She suspected that they'd also got a mysterious box from a somewhat scaly delivery person.

Putting the rest of her odds and ends away into her pocket of holding, and wondering what was in the other ones the manual had mentioned, she grabbed the helmet that went with her costume and headed down to find out what her family was doing.

* * *

Faultline looked at the book she'd found on her desk, read the title, read it again in disbelief, then opened it. Moments later the dark-haired woman sat down heavily and kept reading intensely for some hours.

When she finally came up for air, she was not happy. But at the same time, she finally had an answer, which confirmed a lot of suspicions she'd had for a long time. Deciding that one day there _would_ be a reckoning, she got up to find her employees and friends.

There was something they needed to know.

* * *

"That should do it for now," Saurial said. Danny peered past her, whistled in amazement, and nodded.

"I would think so, yes," he said, somewhat startled even after all he'd seen in the last few days. She pulled the door shut and followed him into the living room, where her three companions and his daughter were. Taylor was listening to something Metis was saying and laughing like an idiot.

"I swear, he just looked at me, looked at it, looked back at me, and said ' _That's the way it came off the roll!_ '"

She grinned as Taylor nearly fell off the sofa with hilarity, then shrugged. "We had to do it all over again."

Turning to look at Danny while his daughter snickered madly, she smiled at him. "All done?"

"I think so," he nodded, looking at the alternate version of Taylor, who also nodded. "Thank you, all of you."

 **"You're very welcome, Danny,"** the Varga said through the Raptaur aspect. **"It has been a lot of fun helping out. With any luck, the effect will continue to spread, and you should see Parahuman problems calm down considerably. That's what happens in most cases."**

"We'll be back in the not too distant future to do some of the other things we mentioned," Ianthe added. "And to keep an eye on things until they settle down. When Taylor's practiced some more we can try some more advanced stuff as well. I've unlocked her powers another stage, and set the blocking effect to slowly dissipate over the next week. By then it should be familiar enough she's not overwhelmed, but if there are any problems, you know how to get hold of us."

"If there's an emergency, just call," Metis said. "We'll come as fast as we can. Hopefully that won't be necessary, though." She smiled. "We have a lot of other things to do but we'll drop everything for family."

"Thanks, guys," Taylor said, sitting up having stopped laughing. "It's been great even if it started in the most horrible way I can think of."

Saurial sat beside her and gave her a hug. "I'm sorry I couldn't get there earlier, Taylor," she said quietly to the girl, who shook her head.

"You'd have needed to get here about two years ago to really fix the biggest problem," she sighed. "And none of it is your fault. You saved me and gave me more than I can ever thank you enough for. I don't care about what might have been."

"Fair enough," the lizard-girl said. A second later she reverted to her human form, smiling at her near-duplicate. "It was nice to meet you, Taylor Hebert."

Danny watched as his daughter held out her hand, the other version of her taking it. "It was nice to meet you too, Taylor Hebert," she said with a grin, which was matched by an identical one. He shook his head in wonder.

Standing up, the older Taylor turned back into Saurial. "Have fun at your new school. Make new friends. Enjoy life. And so on." She looked amused as Taylor laughed. "We'll be in touch."

"What are you doing next?" Danny asked curiously.

"We have a few minor errands still to run but we've done everything major we needed to," Metis replied. "I think you're going to find a few things change for the better around here. Once we've done these last few things we're going home. There's a dinner at the Mayor's house I don't want to miss." She pointed at Saurial, who smirked. "Every time, that one manages to make us late. It's getting irritating."

"Hey, half of this was your idea," Saurial protested mildly. "Speed run?"

"We did it, didn't we? Best score yet!"

Ianthe and Raptaur watched the pair bicker for a moment, then shook their heads. Taylor was giggling again. Producing one of their special cell-phones, the violet lizard poked an icon and raised it to her mouth. "Wormhole me, please," she said calmly. Seconds later the wall of the living room sprouted a metallic door out of an orange hole in reality. "Come on, you two, we have things to do," she said, interrupting the argument which was now taking place in an alien language full of hissing sounds.

"See you later, Danny," she said with a wave, as Raptaur half-pushed her relatives through the door, which opened to reveal Danny's alternate. The other Hebert man looked around, winked at Taylor, nodded to Danny, then stepped to the side to let the reptilian members of his family go past.

When they'd gone, he met Danny's eyes. "It gets weirder," he said with a smile, before pulling the door shut. A second later it was gone.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Danny sighed. He went over and dropped onto the sofa next to his daughter, who looked at him, smiling.

"We could get Chinese."

"Hmm. Yes, I could go for that. Let's go there for once." She nodded eagerly. "When I get back, I need to go see Alan too."

Her face fell. Eventually she sighed, and leaned on him. "Yeah. I'll come too. I want to tell him I don't blame _them_ for it. This must be worse for them than it is for us."

He feared she was right, and decided that his old friend deserved their support, no matter what had happened. Alan's family had been there for him and his daughter when Annette died, the least he could do was return the favor.

Soon the pair of them were driving towards the center of Brockton Bay, in a companionable and reflective silence.

* * *

"I still hate you, Nick."

"I know, Rico. You keep saying that. Yet here we are, still together."

"Idiot."

"Dickhead."

The two men sniped at each other as they drove through the middle of nowhere, Kansas, down a dirt road. The truck was ancient and barely functional but it was all they could afford. Hopefully it would last long enough to get them to somewhere they could find some way to get some income.

They were desperate enough to even work for it.

"Fuckwi… Hey, what's that?" Mid insult, Rico pointed at the road in front of them. There was some sort of duffel bag right in the middle of it about two hundred feet away. Nick slowed the vehicle, which wasn't capable of more than about forty miles an hour on the best day of its life, and _that_ had been thirty years ago. He squinted over the wheel.

"Looks like one of those army bags from the surplus store," he said as he stopped twenty feet from it. The sun was going down and the bag cast a long shadow across the snow-dusted and frozen road.

"Think there's something in it worth having?" Rico asked.

"Out here? What's it going to have, a hundred pounds of turnips?" Nick asked, looking around with distaste. "I'd say we were in Bumfuck, Nowhere, except that would be an improvement. There's nothing here for miles other than mud and abandoned farms."

"So where did that come from?" Rico asked fairly reasonably, pointing at the bag.

"Maybe it fell off a tractor or something?"

"What tractor? No one's been down this road in a week and that thing isn't covered in snow. It can't have been there long."

They looked at each other, then around at the desolate landscape. Then both of them leaned forward and looked upward. "Fell out of an airplane?" Rico suggested.

"That's nuts, it would have broken open if it did that," Nick protested.

They exchanged glances again. "Creepy."

"It's just a bag. Go and get it out of the way. Damn thing is probably full of rocks."

Complaining, Rico got out of the vehicle, shivering in the icy wind, gave his brother an unfriendly look through the window, then stomped towards the mysterious old bag and bent over it. Nick watched as he picked it up, then paused, before opening the end and looking inside.

After thirty seconds of him standing there motionless, Nick tapped the horn. The other man jumped at the pathetic little squeal the thing made, looked at him, back into the bag, then came running back. He ripped the door open and climbed in, his face white in the dim interior light.

"What the hell is wrong?" Nick asked, very puzzled.

"It's not turnips," Rico said hoarsely. "Or rocks."

"What is it then? Apples? A dead body? The back door to Narnia?" Nick stared at his brother.

The younger man put his hand into the bag and pulled out a bundle of very familiar looking paper. Nick stared at it in total shock for quite a while.

"Holy fucking shit on a stick," he whispered, gingerly and wonderingly taking the stack of cash.

"There's about thirty more of those in here," Rico said, his voice breaking. He peered into the bag, and added, "And an envelope."

"What's in it?" Nick asked, not looking away from the money in his hand. At an educated guess he was holding about five thousand dollars in used notes.

"Um..."

His brother sounded odd. He finally looked at him, then the envelope the man was holding like it was a live rattlesnake.

"What is it?"

Rico turned the envelope towards him. He read the names on the front, then met his brother's eyes in stunned amazement.

"How the…?"

"Gotta be a Parahuman," Rico said, carefully holding the envelope addressed to them with one hand, as if it might explode.

"Where are they?" he asked, looking around nervously. "And why would they leave us a bag of money if they were after us? And for that matter why _would_ they be after us?"

"We _did_ blow up the docks," his brother pointed out.

"Only a little part of them. And it was an ABB house so it doesn't count."

"And we disintegrated a building."

"By accident."

"Because you're an idiot."

"Asshole."

"Shit for brains."

"Open the damn envelope!"

They stared at each other, then Rico sighed, held it at arms length, and ripped the top off.

Nothing happened.

Giving it a shake, Rico winced. Again, nothing happened. He eventually tilted it towards him and peered at it, then pulled out the single sheet of paper inside. Unfolding it he held it up to the interior light so they could read it now that the sun had virtually disappeared below the horizon.

 _Hi, guys! Try not to steal any more Tinker-tech, OK? You might not be so lucky next time. And definitely don't steal Leet's tech, unless you have a death wish!_

 _Enjoy the cash. Thanks for giving us an opening. Try to save it, and get a decent job somewhere. As far as I can find out, you both are fairly smart and have some good skills, so a life of crime isn't necessary. Aside from anything else, you're really not very good at it…_

 _Stay out of Brockton Bay. There are people here who might work out what happened. Best not to risk it._

 _Saurial._

They stared at it, then each other, then the bag.

"Who the hell is Saurial?" Rico finally asked.

"I have no fucking clue. But I'm for sure never going back to Brockton Bay again." Nick shook his head and put the truck in gear. "Stash that behind the seat. I want to get out of here as quick as I can. Something about all this gives me the creeps."

"Yeah, I've got that too," Rico said uneasily, looking out the window. "Let's go."

The old vehicle rumbled and wheezed off into the distance. When it had gone, a small draconic form uncloaked, grinned, and vanished.

* * *

Yawning and rubbing his eyes, the Tinker currently known as Leet sat up, groaned, then got out of bed. Pulling on a somewhat grease-stained t-shirt he wandered out of his bedroom into the main part of their lair, going past his best friend who was sitting in front of one of the computers and into the kitchen. He rummaged around in the cupboards until he'd found the aspirin, and the antacids. Swallowing three of the former and chewing a handful of the latter, he waited for his blinding headache to subside.

"I am never having a drinking competition with you again, you asshole," he called. "You cheat."

"What did we do yesterday?" The other man's voice sounded bemused.

"Got fucking wrecked on tequila, as far as I can remember," Leet said, massaging his forehead. "And not even the good stuff."

"Why did we do that?"

"Can't remember. You thought it was a good idea, I think, and like an idiot I went along with it." Leet drank two glasses of water from the tap, then put the glass down and staggered back into the main room, slumping onto the couch in front of the huge TV they'd acquired a while ago. The couch was a nice one they'd found in the street, he'd only had to invent something to get the blood off the leather. Why someone would throw it away just because of that he couldn't work out.

"You sure we didn't blow up the ABB at some point?"

He ran his friend's words through his head a couple of times. They still didn't compute.

"What?" he asked quizzically, turning to look at Über, who was peering intensely at the screen, an odd expression on his face.

"Did we blow up the ABB?"

"Why the _fuck_ would we blow up the ABB?" he queried, rather taken aback. "Neither one of us is crazy enough to want LUNG chasing us!"

"Fair enough. So why is there a video of us blowing up the ABB on PHO?" his friend asked, sounding very confused. Equally baffled, Leet got up and went over to see what the other man was talking about.

"Look."

Leet watched the video. "What the fuck?"

He peered closer. "That was..." Then he looked around. "Where the hell is my disintegrator ray?!" Rushing over to the back of the room, he frantically poked around in the massive pile of older inventions. "I left it right here next to the land speeder! Now it's gone!"

"That's not us," Über said thoughtfully.

"Someone's stolen it!"

"I'm sure that's not us. That guy is too short to be me."

"Fuckers! I'm going to kill them. Who the hell took it?"

"And this guy doesn't quite match you either."

"I never even got to use it!"

"Hey, look, Dragon of all people said it wasn't us! That's… weird."

"My fucking disintegrator ray! That thing took me six weeks to make!"

"Holy _shit!_ " Über sounded shocked. Leet stopped his rant and turned to look at the other man, who was staring at the screen in amazement. Curious, he went back to look.

"Lizards?"

"Lizards!"

"Why lizards?"

They exchanged looks.

"Turok?"

"Might work."

"But lizards? Oh, crap, look at the size of Lung! Fuck me, I haven't seen him that ramped up since..."

Both of them froze and stared.

After a long few seconds, Leet began laughing. Über wasn't far behind him.

It would be another hour before they noticed the package on the kitchen counter addressed to them.

The long term results of them opening it would make a lot of people very puzzled, of course. This was a theme at the moment.

* * *

"A room temperature superconductor?" Colin said with great interest. "And it works to that temperature?"

"It's remarkable, the mechanical properties are surprisingly good, and it's fairly straightforward chemically," Dragon nodded. "It won't take too long to tool up to mass produce it. It's utterly unlike anything I've seen before, I doubt normal research would have come up with it for decades if not longer, but it works exactly as the documentation claims."

"Fascinating." He looked at one of the other monitors closely, reading the file displayed there. "I can think of dozens of uses for this without even trying."

"So can I," she agreed. "It's a very significant breakthrough that will have enormous repercussions across a number of fields."

"And this was just given to you?"

"Yes. There were some fairly straightforward conditions, but they're easy to comply with. Mainly putting thirty percent of the profit towards charitable causes, with a list of recommended ones."

"Astounding. I am impressed yet again by the Family's abilities." He sat back and contemplated the list of things his best friend had sent him. "Together all of these will make a large difference to many common problems. These medical repair spores are going to save a vast number of lives, for instance."

"They seem to have handed them out to practically everyone they met," she chuckled, "And they were very busy for the last day. They're everywhere now. Even if the authorities wanted to suppress them, it's far too late."

"I should be annoyed about that breach of protocol," he noted, tabbing through to the report from their world's PRT, then shaking his head. "However, based on this, they have been far more extensively tested than we could manage and found completely safe. And considering the entire point of both our careers is ultimately to preserve life, I can't complain about them managing to do that far more efficiently than we can. Although I have little doubt that there will be considerable upset in the medical industry."

"True, but there's not much anyone can do about it," she smiled. "And any medical industry that exists to profit from only treating the symptoms and leaving the causes alone needs to be changed in any case, as far as I'm concerned."

"I can't deny there's a lot of truth to that, but I doubt everyone would agree."

"They'll have to live with it." Dragon seemed amused, which he noted and almost understood.

"Were there any other significant technological breakthroughs they passed on?" he asked.

Her smile became… odd.

"Actually, yes, there was one," she replied with a strangely nervous expression.

"Which is?" he asked after a few seconds during which she simply regarded him.

"Promise you'll listen?" she finally asked, still sounding strange. He tried to assess her mood from the vocal inflections but with his helmet off he couldn't use the emotional analysis software to get an accurate reading. It was only his long familiarity with her that let him work it out without technological aid.

"I will always listen to anything you have to say, Dragon," he assured her completely honestly. "You are my most valued friend."

"Thank you, Colin," she said softly. "Remember that."

The door alarm beeped, making him look around, then sigh minutely. "Apologies, I have a visitor," he said as he got up and headed over to the door, picking his helmet up on the way and putting it on just in case the visitor wasn't authorized to know his civilian identity.

She didn't respond by the time he opened the door.

"Hello, Colin," the woman on the other side said with a very familiar smile. "Can I come in?"

It took him nearly twenty-two point five seconds to nod and step aside.

The door closed behind her with a soft click. At the end of the corridor, Ethan smiled to himself, then went off to reassure his wife he really did still love her and forgave her.

* * *

Late that night, Amy made sure the door was locked, then dug out the box from the costume hanging in the closet. Going back to her bed she lay down, propping her back on the pillows, and aimed the lamp next to the bed at the container and the note on it. She read the latter again, before putting it to the side.

Then, carefully, she opened the box.

Inside was a smaller one, plus a booklet. She pulled this out and read the title.

 **Mark 21 Developer's Edition.**

 **For BioShaper Guild Use Only.**

 **Programming and API manual.**

 **Internal Family document, unauthorized access will result in severe trolling and near-lethal sarcasm. Amusing mutations possible.**

 **"Life is precious. Make it right."**

Eyes very wide, she opened the cover and started reading. By the time dawn rolled around, she was having more fun than she'd ever thought she could.

* * *

Thomas suddenly found himself awake, sweating. Looking around all he could see was the same high security cell he'd been stuck in for several days now, lit very dimly by the led on the camera that was tracking him from above the door. He shuddered as memories of Emily Piggot's absolutely merciless eyes went through his mind.

But that wasn't the worst thing.

He listened very carefully, barely daring to breathe. After nearly ten minutes, he relaxed slowly. It had been his imagination.

Rolling over on the cot he closed his eyes and tried to get back to sleep, while thinking yet again how to extricate himself from his predicament. Sooner or later he'd work out a viable plan, he was sure.

Sureish, at any rate.

Sort of.

…

He hoped.

 _Tekeli-li_

Thomas Calvert's eyes snapped open and he moaned, "Oh, no, not _again_..."

* * *

"What's he screaming about _this_ time?"

"I have no idea, Sarge. He's just gibbering in the corner, pointing at the wall on the other side of the cell."

The PRT man in charge of the cell block looked at the monitor displaying the image from the low light camera in the cell their highest-value prisoner was occupying and shook his head.

"Man's nuts."

"Well, if you read the reports on what he's accused of, he'd pretty much have to be," the other guard said wisely.

"I can't believe he was one of us," the sergeant said with disgust.

His subordinate shrugged. "We got him. That's the main thing."

Reaching out he turned down the volume on the monitoring speaker, as it was becoming annoying, then went back to reading his book. The sergeant filling in another report, looked at the screen with a shake of his head, and also went back to more important business.

* * *

"Do you have to keep torturing that idiot?"

"Hey, I only did that once for about five minutes just to see what happened. I have no idea why he thinks he keeps hearing it!"

"Really?"

"Yep."

 **"Very odd. I wonder if his Shard is faulty?"**

"No idea. If he's still hearing things in a week, we can go and have a look. Right now, we have this other problem to sort out. Hand me that thaumometer, will you, Lisa?"

"Here you go."

"Thanks. Now, this won't hurt, but it's going to feel very weird..."

* * *

Amy looked up as a tallish brunette girl walked into the cafeteria, looked around, smiled, and headed for the trays. When she came past five minutes later with the air of someone looking for a free seat, she deliberated then moved slightly, before motioning to the girl.

The other person smiled gratefully and sat next to her. "Thanks," she said. "This place is really full. Is it always like this?"

"There's a lot more people here right now because of that thing at Winslow," Amy told her, picking up her fork and resuming eating. "It'll get less crowded when they finish fixing it."

"Oh, right. OK, thanks." The other girl popped the top on a can of coke and took a sip.

"New transfer?"

"Yeah, I was at Winslow, actually. But I'm here permanently now, I transferred in today."

Amy studied her for a moment, nodding. "Was it as bad as I heard."

"Worse, if anything," the girl replied with a twist of her lips. "I'm glad to be out of there." She held out her hand. "Taylor Hebert."

Her eyes widening slightly, Amy shook the offered appendage, pausing for a moment as her power told her something interesting. "Amy Dallon."

"I know, I've seen your photo," Taylor smiled. "Panacea. It's nice to meet you."

"And you." Amy pointed at where Vicky was laughing with her friends and a couple of the Wards. "My sister. She means well, most of the time, but she's… outgoing."

"And you're not?" Taylor looked amused.

"Not as much as that," Amy snickered. "She'd the only person I've ever known that could be considered _too_ cheerful at times."

They exchanged a grin. "I met someone interesting a few days ago," Amy said after a moment, slightly tentatively. "Your name came up."

"Really?" The other girl seemed to be hiding a smile. "Funny, I was about to say the same thing."

"Strange people, aren't they?"

"Oh, god, _so_ strange. You have no _idea_ ," Taylor replied with a sigh. "Nice, though. They were very helpful."

"So I gather. They seem to have been helpful everywhere, whether anyone wanted them to be or not."

"I think that's sort of a thing with them."

They looked at each other.

"Lizards are _very_ weird."

"Cool, though."

Both girls nodded wisely.

A few minutes passed in oddly easy silence.

Taylor finally said, "I was advised to make friends. Would you like to be a friend?"

Amy considered the question. "I rather believe I would, as it happens. I've been told I need friends as well."

"Great." Taylor smiled brilliantly. "Want to come over after school?" Her smile became mischievous. "We have a really big rec room in the basement. I've got a few things there you might be interested in."

"Sounds like an idea worth exploring," Amy nodded seriously. "Can Vicky come?"

"Sure. She looks like fun."

"In small doses, yes."

They nodded to each other, then resumed eating.

After another couple of minutes, Taylor asked casually, "How do you feel about spiders?"

Amy glanced at her. "I sort of like them."

"Good." With a slight smirk, the taller girl bent over her dessert. Amy wondered why, but decided not to ask. She'd undoubtedly find out sooner or later.

* * *

•

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•

 **Topic: Endbringers Vanish?  
In: Boards ► Threat Discussions ► Endbringers  
Winged One **(Verified Super Troll)  
Posted On Jan 6th 2011:

You heard it here first! The Endbringers have disappeared!

All seismic traces of Behemoth have completely ceased. Leviathan can no longer be tracked, there are no acoustic signatures anywhere according to my information.

And the Simurgh is no longer in orbit.

What does this mean? Every government on the planet is discussing it frantically, and they're producing plan after plan. I have a feeling that none of them are worth the paper they're printed on, assuming they got printed

Face it; No one really knows where they came from in the first place, or why. Or if they _do_ know, they're not saying. Probably for the best, really!

So it's likely that no one will know where they went when they disappeared, or why either.

But I can tell you what it means to _me_.

 _Freedom._

Have a good day, everyone. I'm going to go and do something nice for someone, I think. I feel in that sort of mood. I need to fix a few things too.

Pizza's on me

Talk among yourselves. I'll be back at some point. But right now I need to get out. It's been too long.

Life is definitely looking up...

 **(Showing page 192 of 914)**

► **Jormungandr  
** Replied On Jan 6th 2011:

I'm telling you idiots, **It. Was. The. Lizards!**

 **Why does no one ever believe me?**

► **SenorEel  
** Replied On Jan 4th 2011:

Because you're very, very weird, possibly?

;)

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX  
** Replied On Jan 6th 2011:

Ha ha ha ha ha!

:D :D

► **Jormungandr  
** Replied On Jan 6th 2011:

I really, _really_ hate you, Cowboy...

► **Aloha  
** Replied On Jan 6th 2011:

He knows ;)

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX  
** Replied On Jan 6th 2011:

I know.

Edit: Lizarded :)

► **Jormungandr  
** Replied On Jan 6th 2011:

Asshole.

► **LizardGirl  
** Replied On Jan 6th 2011:

"Lizarded..." ROFL!

► **NearlyMad  
** Replied On Jan 6th 2011:

Umm… Guys?

I got a pizza too. This is getting a little freaky…

► **BadSamurai  
** Replied On Jan 6th 2011:

Was it any good? Enquiring minds want to know!

 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 190, 191, 192, 193, 194 ... 912, 913, 914**

•


	15. Epilogue

_...ther fine spring day here in Brockton Bay. A high temperature of sixty seven degrees is expected by noon, with a light breeze blowing from the west and few clouds until later tonight. Tomorrow looks like more of the same. It might be time to think about putting the winter clothes away, folks!_

 _In local news, Medhall Pharmaceuticals has announced an expansion program over the next two years, which will add nearly two hundred and thirty jobs, divided between researchers and clerical staff. The Mayor's office has said that they welcome the new business the expansion will bring to the city, and between that and the newly created Bay Redevelopment Program, the commercial fortunes of our city appear to have undergone a significant turnaround in the last two and a half months._

 _Winslow High School, the site of a major biohazard scare at the beginning of the semester which resulted in the closure of the entire site for ten days while extensive decontamination works were carried out, supervised by the CDC, has stated a modernization and upgrade operation will be carried out over the summer break. The main building will be completely gutted and refitted, including the wing that was damaged in the incident. Expansion works will add capacity for a further two hundred students, and the increased number of classrooms will lower the student to teacher ratio from thirty-five to one to twenty to one. The newly appointed school board claims this will enhance the learning experience for all students and have a significant effect in improving discipline and attendance._

 _More changes at the Dock Worker's Union keep coming. Spokesman Danny Hebert has gone on record as saying that they have already secured contracts for clearing the area known as the Ship's Graveyard, a blight on the city landscape since the riots in the mid nineties, and rebuilding the area affected by the enormous but short lived gang war on the fourth of January, which lead to the capture of seven Parahuman villains. Heavy equipment is being brought in, financed by a loan from the Canadian company DracoTech, who are also providing IT support and other equipment to modernize the facilities throughout the Docks. One hundred and seventy three new jobs have already been created and estimates are that within three years, much of the formerly derelict shipping industry will be functioning again._

 _These developments are also attracting a number of small and medium sized companies to Brockton Bay, drawn by the low cost land and excellent transport links provided by the revamping of the rail system that is part of the Redevelopment Plan. Somewhat surprisingly many of these companies are in high tech industries, providing products ranging from electronics and robotics through telecommunications and biotechnology. Projections suggest that within a decade the city could rival parts of Silicon Valley. Several Tinker-based companies are among the more traditional ones, lead by the famous Tinker Dragon and her local branch of DracoTech, undergoing construction at the current time and due to be fully functional by the end of the year. Theresa Richter, her CTO, has relocated to Brockton Bay to manage the new subsidiary._

 _Director Emily Piggot, commanding officer of the PRT ENE here in the Bay, along with Armsmaster, leader of the Protectorate ENE, have announced a joint program to expand training for independent Parahumans, saying that with the number living in the area it was only sensible to ensure they were supported even if they didn't wish to formally join either the Wards program or the Protectorate itself. They added that this was the most effective method to prevent someone turning to a life of crime which is the unfortunate result in over seventy percent of new Triggers. New Wave, our largest local independent group, welcomed the announcement and offered their support, which was accepted. Several new Parahumans have apparently already signed up for this program._

 _The escape of Lung, the notorious leader of the ABB gang, six weeks ago, has still not been resolved. No sign of him has been seen since, while the gang itself appears to have quietly dissolved in the wake of his initial capture. Fears that the gang would splinter into the dozens of smaller ones it was formed from have so far failed to materialize, although the BBPD when asked could offer no theories as to why._

 _With the surrender of the entirety of the Archer's Bridge Merchants to the PRT at the beginning of January, this means that there is only one gang left in a city formerly plagued by three main ones and several smaller groups. The latter have mostly been captured and closed down, both by work by the BBPD, and in two cases by the mysterious new cape group led by the Parahuman known as Skitter. Very little is currently on record about the group, including their name or even how many are in it, but their heroic achievements have been applauded by people from Mayor Christner through Director Piggot, the latter saying that she was impressed by the professionalism of the people involved._

 _The Empire Eighty Eight, the sole remaining large gang, for reasons unknown at present have not apparently taken advantage of the vacuum left by the removal of their rivals, and there have been very few sightings of their Parahumans for a number of weeks. Since the capture of a number of their more dangerous members including Hookwolf and Storm Tiger, the organization appears to have decided that discretion is the watchword. While it is unknown whether this state of affairs will continue, there is no indication otherwise at the moment._

 _Moving to national news now, the scandal known as the Cauldron Affair rumbles on. Chief Director Armstrong, newly appointed to head the PRT in place of the disgraced former Chief Director Costa-Brown, has been answering questions brought by a congressional inquiry that was set up immediately following the events of the fourth and fifth of January this year, the cause of which is still in debate. The fallout from whatever truly happened has been felt around the planet, causing economic confusion although in recent weeks this appears to be settling down. Former Triumvirate member Legend, who offered his resignation from the position of leader of the Protectorate, has also been in front of the inquiry, in a closed doors session._

 _What was discussed at that meeting has not been leaked to the public, a government spokesman stating that it was currently too sensitive for public consumption and would be reevaluated as new data arrived. What is known is that Legend was asked to stay on in his role, apparently winning backing from a number of highly placed and influential sources around the world. Our own Director Piggot was called to testify in this meeting and in a statement afterwards said that she agreed with the decision, but refused to elaborate._

 _Neither Costa-Brown, also known as the Parahuman Alexandria, or Eidolon, the other two members of the Triumvirate, have been seen in public since the Cauldron Affair was first confirmed to be true. Rumors abound as to their whereabouts but no verifiable information has so far turned up. Both people are expected to face intensive questioning when they are finally located._

 _Three more medical insurance providers have filed for Chapter Eleven protection due to the massive changes in treatment caused by the world-wide spread of what has become known as the 'Fixit Plant.' The ability for any individual to produce these medical miracles at home has significantly impacted the entire healthcare industry here and abroad. Estimates of lives saved in the mere months since the introduction of the presumed Tinker-Tech organism has reached the tens of millions already, which experts say is quite possibly a serious understatement. The number of people who have had non-lethal injuries or conditions healed dwarfs that total. The fund set up by a consortium of financial and tech companies to buffer the shock of so massive a change in the medical and healthcare fields has become one of the largest non-profits in the world in only two months. DracoTech is one of the biggest contributors to this fund, assigning a large stake in half a dozen newly patented and highly lucrative inventions for that purpose._

 _When asked, Dragon, owner of DracoTech, said 'It's the right thing to do. There's a limit to how much money any one person, or even company, can consider fair to accumulate. I would rather help as many people as possible with the profits from my inventions. Various friends and colleagues agree and we decided this was how we wanted to provide an example to the world. We're all part of it, and should support each other.' Other contributors to the fund include Z Industries, Numeral Finance, and the US government. Z Industries will be familiar to listeners as the fastest-growing search engine in the world, rapidly outpacing its competitors since its founding at the beginning of the year, while Numeral Finance is one of the biggest investment funds in the US._

 _In international news, the long-proposed Federation of African Nations moved a step closer to reality with the signing of a treaty between four west African countries in the wake of the elimination of the infamous Parahuman Moord…  
_  
Lisa pulled her earbuds out as the waiter stopped next to her, smiling at him. "Thanks," she said as he unloaded his tray, putting her plate in front of her. She sniffed appreciatively as he nodded back, put her coffee next to the plate, then went to deal with another customer. Coiling the cable around her phone she tapped the icon to stop the FM radio app, then put the phone down on the table and picked up her knife and fork.

As she ate, she looked around, people watching as tourists and locals wandered up and down the boardwalk. It really was a beautiful day, warmer than usual for this time of year, and very nice to sit outside on next to the bay.

She glanced at the man and woman who walked past, the former with short dark hair and a neat beard, the latter with shoulder length somewhat darker hair. She had her arm looped through his and he seemed pleased but slightly puzzled at the same time, looking down at her every now and then with an expression like he couldn't quite work out how this had happened.

The woman looked around, smiling, and as they passed happened to meet Lisa's eyes.

Lisa nodded politely to her, then flicked her gaze to the man, who was looking out at the bay, before returning it to the woman. Her smiled widened fractionally for a moment.

The brunette's smile briefly became a devious grin.

Then they moved on.

Amused, Lisa went back to her breakfast.

"Nice phone," a voice said from behind her. "I've got one just like it."

"You're late," she said while picking her coffee mug up.

"Sorry, had something to finish at home," the other girl said as she sat down opposite Lisa.

"Anything serious?"

"Nope. Just a little side project."

Her friend grinned as she sighed.

"You've persuaded Amy to do something weird again, haven't you?"

"Hey, she's just as much to blame as I am. Who knew jumping spiders were _that_ smart?"

"It's the size of a _cat_ , you lunatic!" Lisa shook her head in despair. "And it maxed out your dad's credit card."

"Yeah, he was a little pissed about that. We fixed it, though."

"You introduced it to Alec." Lisa gave the other girl a look of disapproval. "That's not _fixing_ it. That's _making it worse!_ "

"They seem to enjoy ganging up on Kev."

" _He_ doesn't enjoy it."

"Tough." Taylor giggled as Lisa shook her head. "Hey, are the bagels here any good?" 

* * *

****  
And life went on.

* * *

 _There we go. All done :) This has been the longest Omake I've ever written, and for that matter, ever seen. More than a decent novel in length! I have no idea if that's relevant, but I find it amusing._

 _Hope you enjoyed it._


End file.
